Mortgage Figures Up, but Pace of Growth Slows

Limetree Financial Services Limited

Mortgage Figures Up, but Pace of Growth Slows

Mortgage lending figures for June have been in the news recently, as they creep up to an eight-month high.

The real story, though is that the pace of growth is slowing down. The headlines come from estimates recently released by the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML). Essentially, yes, there has been real growth, but changes to market regulation mean that further forecasts will be trickier.

CML’s chief economist Bob Pannell said:

“The macro-prudential interventions announced by the Financial Policy Committee in late June are finely calibrated and precautionary, but could nevertheless reinforce April’s Mortgage Market Review in tipping the UK towards a more conservative lending environment.

“It is difficult to gauge the short-term direction for house purchase activity and mortgage lending more generally, given unknown regulatory impacts and uncertainty as to when the first in a series of interest rate increases will take place.”

While we agree that June was certainly a busy month, it was not record-breaking from our end. It will be interesting to see how the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) affordability guildelines might slow the market down.

Normal mortgage transactions are in the region of 12 weeks, and the MMR kicked in at the end of April. So, will we be looking at longer transactions?

If you have any questions about your own borrowing, give us a call.

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