Rise in mortgage approvals 'is good news'

Date:Thursday 4th June 2009
Author: Max Freedman

An increase in the number of approvals for new mortgages has been welcomed as "good news" for the sector.

Sue Anderson of the Council of Mortgage Lenders said the organisation was glad of the news but observed that transaction activity is still slow.

Ms Anderson cited economic problems such as rising unemployment and restricted lending as reasons why it is not likely that property transactions will make a speedy recovery.

According to figures from the Bank of England, new mortgage approvals went up for the third month in a row in April, while remortgaging approvals saw a drop.

There were 32,045 remortgage approvals in March but this fell to 31,800 in April.

The British Bankers' Association's statistics show that there were 27,685 mortgages approved in April 2009, rising 3.8 per cent on March's figure, but still 15.5 per cent less than in April last year.

It also reported that mortgage lending at UK banks was £2.7 billion in April, a drop from £3.4 billion in March.