Increases in mortgage lending 'will be a slow process'

Date:Friday 7th May 2010
Author: Susanna Kavka

Growth in mortgage lending will not increase at a rapid rate, according to one property expert, who has suggested that people must look at current figures within the correct context.

Catherine Hearnden, director of MyMortgageDirect, explained that the increases in mortgage lending are necessarily slow and suggested that the UK economy is not likely to keep showing bigger and bigger increases each month.

Her comments follow the news that the total net lending in March rose by £0.6 billion, with the three-month annualised growth rate dropping 0.3 percentage points compared to February to 1.4 per cent, according to figures released by the Bank of England.

"February would have increased year-on-year because it was so dire and as last year went through and eventually improved, the increase will slow down," remarked Ms Hearnden.

She noted that the figures only look slightly negative due to the starting point of certain figures.

In her view, there is no peculiarity about the statistics.