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Remortgage lending up a fifth

Adam Williams
Written By:
Adam Williams
Posted:
Updated:
24/06/2015

More people remortgaged their homeloan in April than at any other time in the last six years.

According to remortgage specialist LMS, gross monthly remortgaging hit £4.8bn in April, a rise of 15% on the previous month.

This figure meant April was the best month for remortgaging in almost six years. It was also the biggest month-on-month growth in the market since September 2013, LMS said.

Customers are also withdrawing more cash from their homes but rising house prices mean average loan-to-values are falling.

In total the actual number of remortgage loans rose by 21% from 26,600 in March to 32,230 in April. This constitutes a 15% year-on-year increase from the 28,100 remortgage loans recorded in April 2014.

Andy Knee said the remortgage market may now be returning to sustained growth following a varied few years.

“The growth in remortgaging in April is a much-needed boost to a sector which has experienced huge fluctuations over the past 12 months,” he said.

“It also suggests we may be slowly returning to pre-crisis levels of activity with the total amount of equity withdrawn through remortgaging reaching figures we haven’t seen since 2008. While we have a positive outlook for the year ahead, we do not anticipate a surge of activity but instead a steady stream of customers to keep lenders busy.

“The certainty that a clear election result brought saw the housing market breath a huge sigh of relief. But to maintain momentum we should not become complacent and should continue encouraging brokers and customers to discuss the potential benefits of remortgaging – especially at a time when there are so many competitive offers around.”


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