The Bank’s quarter two instalment of the review which is based on discussions with Santander, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, and RBS, showed that mortgage appetite among consumers rose significantly in the three months to mid-June, shortly before the UK’s vote on membership of the European Union took place.
Unsurprisingly, buy-to-let lending fell slightly in Q2, after the market saw the introduction of a 3% Stamp Duty premium on additional property purchases from 1 April.
The review reported that mortgage lending has been volatile in recent months, largely due to the changes in the buy-to-let market, which saw investors rush to beat the Stamp Duty deadline.
Firms reported that credit scoring criteria for mortgage lending was slightly tighter during the second quarter of 2016, as with the availability of secured credit. The cost of mortgages remained relatively the same, however, with rates on a range of two-year fixed rates reported to have remained broadly flat and close to record lows.
While lenders expected demand for mortgages to shrink slightly, the availability of credit is expected to remain broadly the same, with rates likely to stay consistent with this.
