Mortgage figures 'good news for the market'

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that the slump in mortgage lending reported by the Bank of England earlier this week is in fact a sign that the market is holding up well.

The fact that many analysts and early figures from the likes of the British Bankers Association suggested that the figures would be worse means that the announcement would have provided a measure of consolation for the industry, the CML has said.

The figures were published as a variety of websites such as Moneyfacts.co.uk and Moneysupermarket.com cautioned that mortgage fees have risen sharply in recent years.

"What we're seeing from the Bank of England's statement out today is a far less dramatic reduction in approvals than the preliminary surveys, such as the BBA, had shown," said Sue Anderson, head of member and external relations at the CML.

"Naturally there is a slow down and that reflects a mixture of what we've been expecting to happen at this point in the year anyway and the exacerbating factors of the slowdown in funding, but I think it is more robust than doomsters have been predicting and that's quite good news for the market," Ms Anderson added.

Finance your build or renovation with one of BuildStore's unique finance packages

© Adfero Ltd