Slow start to mortgage lending this year

Date:Friday 19th February 2010
Author: Max Freedman

Mortgage lending is likely to be slow to pick up in the early months of this year, according to one expert.

Bernard Clarke, spokesman for the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), said that there is expected to be an increase over the course of the year, but the early months will be slow after many people rushed to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday at on January 1st.

He added: "We are still in a market in which it is not as competitive as it was and those circumstances will only improve very slowly."

Mr Clarke also explained that one thing that is needed for the market to return to its former levels is for measures to be made to address the shortage of mortgage funding.

Earlier this month, Paragon Mortgages stated that 58 per cent of mortgage brokers were expecting to experience an increase in lending in the first quarter of this year.