 A for sale and sold sign stand outside residential properties in London, UK. The number of mortgages approved remains less than half the level at the peak of the property boom in 2007. Bloomberg photo |
U.K. mortgage approvals stayed close to an eight-month low in November as banks kept up their squeeze on lending, constraining the property market.
Lenders granted 48,019 loans to buy homes, compared with 47,315 in October, the Bank of England said Tuesday in London. Economists forecast 46,500, according to the median of 11
predictions in a Bloomberg News survey. Net mortgage lending was 788 million pounds ($1.2 billion) compared with 1.2 billion pounds the previous month.
Hometrack Ltd. said last week that U.K. house prices fell for a sixth month in December and will extend their decline this year on “weak” demand and tighter mortgage-lending conditions.
The number of mortgages approved remains less than half the level at the peak of the property boom in 2007.
“You’ve got a fairly subdued market,” Ross Walker, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said in a telephone interview before the release. “Without the new mortgage finance, I don’t see how you keep prices propped up at current levels” and “we’ll probably get modest house-price falls over the course of this year, around 5 percent.”
The pound rose after the release of the data, and a separate report showing manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than economists forecast in December.
Gross home loans amounted to 11.5 billion pounds, the most since June, the Bank of England said. The monthly total of mortgage approvals has fallen by 11,000 since November 2009.
House prices will fall 2.5 percent in 2011 as a lack of mortgage finance and government-spending cuts deter buyers, according to the median estimate of 23 banks, brokers and
property forecasters in a Bloomberg News survey published on Dec. 30.
Today’s Bank of England figures showed consumers paid off unsecured debt in November. Lending fell for the first time in three months, dropping by 121 million pounds as credit card lending rose the least since 2008.
A measure of M4 money-supply growth that the central bank uses to assess the effectiveness of its asset purchases rose 3.5 percent in the three months through November on an annualized basis. The gauge excludes financial companies that specialize in intermediating between banks, such as holding companies and non-bank credit grantors.
Lenders granted 48,019 loans to buy homes, compared with 47,315 in October, the Bank of England said Tuesday in London. Economists forecast 46,500, according to the median of 11
predictions in a Bloomberg News survey. Net mortgage lending was 788 million pounds ($1.2 billion) compared with 1.2 billion pounds the previous month.
Hometrack Ltd. said last week that U.K. house prices fell for a sixth month in December and will extend their decline this year on “weak” demand and tighter mortgage-lending conditions.
The number of mortgages approved remains less than half the level at the peak of the property boom in 2007.
“You’ve got a fairly subdued market,” Ross Walker, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said in a telephone interview before the release. “Without the new mortgage finance, I don’t see how you keep prices propped up at current levels” and “we’ll probably get modest house-price falls over the course of this year, around 5 percent.”
The pound rose after the release of the data, and a separate report showing manufacturing expanded at a faster pace than economists forecast in December.
Gross home loans amounted to 11.5 billion pounds, the most since June, the Bank of England said. The monthly total of mortgage approvals has fallen by 11,000 since November 2009.
Hometrack Report
House values dropped 0.4 percent in December from the previous month, Hometrack said on Dec. 27. The report also showed sellers had to wait the longest since April 2009 to shift their properties and adds to forecasts for a weaker housing market in 2011.House prices will fall 2.5 percent in 2011 as a lack of mortgage finance and government-spending cuts deter buyers, according to the median estimate of 23 banks, brokers and
property forecasters in a Bloomberg News survey published on Dec. 30.
Today’s Bank of England figures showed consumers paid off unsecured debt in November. Lending fell for the first time in three months, dropping by 121 million pounds as credit card lending rose the least since 2008.
A measure of M4 money-supply growth that the central bank uses to assess the effectiveness of its asset purchases rose 3.5 percent in the three months through November on an annualized basis. The gauge excludes financial companies that specialize in intermediating between banks, such as holding companies and non-bank credit grantors.
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