Housing sector 'constrained' by mortgage market

Date:Tuesday 2nd June 2009
Author: Max Freedman

The property market in the UK is "constrained" due to limited consumer access to the mortgage market, according to a Savills research director.

Lucian Cook, director of residential research at the global real estate service provider, said house prices are beginning to "stabilise", but the market is still restricted due to the limited availability of mortgages.

He said that at the moment, buyers tend to be those who have higher levels of cash or equity, as they are best able to make a property purchase under the current economic conditions.

Last week, the British Bankers' Association reported that net mortgage lending for April 2009 stood at £2.7 billion.

In total, some 27,685 mortgages were approved in the month - up by 4.6 per cent compared with March 2009 and an increase of 63 per cent compared to the same period last year.

"Since the beginning of the year we have seen a substantial shift in [the thoughts] of homebuyers, but the limitation is the number of people who are able to access the mortgage market and take advantage of that," Mr Cook concluded.