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CML: Lending levels down again
15 May 2008 10:30
Lending fell again in March, new figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have shown, with the value of mortgages granted for house purchases down markedly.
Gross mortgage lending fell by 3.6 per cent from February to £24.1 billion in March, down by 24 per cent from March 2007, with loans to homebuyers down by 46.6 per cent year-on-year to £7 billion and lending to remortgagers by 14.7 per cent to £9.9 billion.
Meanwhile, lending to first-time buyers fell by 45.1 per cent year-on-year to £2.27 billion in March, with this group typically borrowing 89 per cent of the property's value and 3.35 times their income, compared to 90 per cent and 3.32 times a year previously.
The proportion of mortgages made up by fixed-rates also fell year-on-year, from 76 to 54 per cent, while trackers, which on the whole came with slightly lower rates, accounted for 31 per cent of all mortgages granted, compared to just 13 per cent in March 2007.
CML director general Michael Coogan warned that house purchases would continue to decline over coming months, adding that the Bank of England's efforts to improve liquidity would take time to feed through into the mortgage market.
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