29
Apr
CML 'unsurprised' by house purchase lending data
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that it is not
surprised by the latest Bank of England figures on approvals for
house purchase, which showed a continued decline.
It suggested that "this will result in a substantially lower level
of housing transactions in 2008 than we saw last year".
The Bank's data showed that the number of number of loans approved
for house purchase last month was lower than in February and the
previous six month average at 64,000, while remortgaging approvals
were also down on the previous month at 98,000.
Referring to the Bank's recently announced special liquidity
scheme, the CML said it hoped that the mortgage market would feel
the benefit of the increased liquidity.
However, it stated: "It will take some months for this to happen
and mortgage lending volumes are going to continue to fall before
they improve because of the funding gap of around £30
billion."
