Mortgage approvals hold steady in April: Bank of England

Mortgage lending criteria has a massive influence on the number of people obtaining first time mortgages, or attempting to refinance an existing mortgage. Having high credit requirements is a necessity to prevent defaults, but it also prevents too many people from purchasing a home using a mortgage. It is better for individuals to own their home than to rent, because rent does not go towards building equity. It is difficult to balance the interests of increasing home ownership and preventing a situation that caused the mortgage crash in 2008 in the United States. If lending criteria is too low, there could be massive defaults. Also, the mortgage industry is strongly impacted by speculation of interest rates, and it makes it a highly volatile market.
I think the fact that mortgage rates didn’t actually increase, and that numbers were only down by a few hundred indicates a strong home buying market.