Seasonal rise in mortgage lending
The mortgage lending market continued to show signs of improvement in October, and will continue to grow albeit modestly next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Gross mortgage lending for the month was an estimated £13.5 billion, a 5% rise on September but down by 27% on October last year. The CML said the rise was typical of the seasonal activity normally seen between September and October. It also expects the annual comparison to start to improve in the coming months as underlying lending volumes dropped sharply in the latter part of last year and early 2009. Despite this, some seasonal slowdown has been predicted for the remainder of the year. CML economist, Paul Samter, added that he expected the coming months to be dominated by seasonal factors rather than underlying change. A significant change in the type of lending that had taken place since the start of 2009 had also been noted. "House purchase activity has picked up significantly," he added. "By contrast, remortgaging has dropped to decade-low levels as many borrowers have little incentive to refinance when they move onto low reversion rates, and others find themselves unable to do so due to equity constraints."