The amount that people want to borrow has stayed the same this month – or so it would seem. Underneath an average requested borrowing amount almost identical to
last month at £134,500 are some quite significant regional differences.

What is also interesting is that this average amount is almost 2.5% more than people
were asking to borrow this time last year. An increase in confidence, a rise in debt
consolidation or an indication that house prices are actually rising? As our figures
include both remortgages and purchases, it could be a mixture of all three.

As we forecast, there has been a 7% drop in the number of borrowers in August, as
people swapped mortgage concerns for anxieties about holidays or mulling over
how they could hope to amuse the kids for six weeks. However there are still
almost 8% more people looking for advice compared to this time last year, which
may be another indication of confidence.

Last year, the August dip in the number of borrowers continued into September, but market conditions were different then as we were falling into recession. This month there have been some reports that the UK’s recession is ending, so my prediction is that we will see a modest rise in borrower numbers in September this year.

Lower numbers of borrowers had the usual effect of raising lead prices just slightly; lead prices went up by almost the same percentage that borrower numbers went down, but with an average lead price of just £8.01 the cost of getting new clients
through buying leads is not going to break the bank for anyone.

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The Midlands and the North West were stable, in terms of borrowing amounts,
with the North West seeing only 1.4% fewer borrowers than in July, the smallest
reduction in the country.

There were four regions that saw a drop in the amounts that people were asking to
borrow. The biggest drop was in Northern Ireland which continued its erratic rise
and fall. The South East saw a fall of 3% in borrowing amounts, but the average loan
size there was £162,000. Similarly, London experienced a 2.8% drop but only to
£201,900. The higher amount in London and the South East significantly raised the
average borrowing amounts of the country as a whole.

The South West had the highest increases, with increased borrowing of almost 9%. This more than offset the 2% drop it experienced last month.

Scotland not only saw a rise in borrowing amounts but it was also the only region to have an increase in the number of borrowers; and borrower numbers are not only up compared to July but have increased by more than 11% compared to this time last year. Mortgage advisers here were winning, as while borrower numbers went up, lead prices went down by a similar amount.

Despite the holiday season, August was a pretty positive month, with stable borrowing, large numbers of borrowers looking for mortgage advice – at times exceeding 1500 mortgage borrowers in a single day – and lead prices remaining at record low levels.