It is a very interesting picture this month – the amounts that people want to borrow are up, the number of borrowers is down, and the combination has pushed lead prices up slightly.
Borrowers are possibly taking a leap of faith about borrowing amounts, as they have risen almost across the board. Lending figures had been rising slowly for four months on the trot before the end of April figures came out so maybe this has inspired borrowers to ask for a little bit more – whatever the reason, the amounts people wanted to borrow rose by an average of 2% across the UK.
The biggest rise was in Northern Ireland, where borrowers wanted to borrow 5.6% more than last month – up to £117,400 from £110,000 last month. The number of borrowers here dropped by a relatively small amount too, while lead prices rose by 2.5% – although they are still the lowest in the country due to the small amount of advisers in this region.
On the other hand, the North West seemed very unsettled. For the first time since we started providing these statistics for Mortgage Solutions, three years ago, the North East did not provide the highest number of borrowers; in fact it dropped to third place behind Anglia and the Midlands. Anglia providing the highest number of leads was a real turn-up for the books. Traditionally, it has been fourth largest provider, only jumping to top spot last month. This flood of extra demand from borrowers meant that there was more business than many advisers working in this region could handle, so lead prices here dropped by 2.5%.
The Midlands reflected activity in Anglia: it provided the second highest number of leads, but despite this, the price of getting in touch with new clients remained the same. The Midlands was one of only two regions which saw a drop in the amount that people wanted to borrow, but just 1.1% taking the average mortgage requested to £114,000.
There appeared to be no holiday for advisers in Scotland, however, who seem keen to do all the business they could. There was one of the biggest drop-offs in borrower numbers here, so that together with Scottish advisers’ high demand for new business, the lead price rose by 19%, but from a historically low base, this still brought them to an average of just £12.25.
The last region of note is Wales. Wales is the only other region to see requested borrowing amounts fall, but this time by more than 3%, leaving Wales with the lowest average mortgage requested in the UK at just £107,000.
The rest of the South saw slight increases in borrowing amounts of around 1.5%, with the exception of London where borrowers wanted 3% more, maintaining requested mortgage amounts just below £200,000. Borrower numbers in all Southern areas tailed off a little, and this time, so did lead prices, but again London was less affected with the smallest reduction in borrower numbers than anywhere else in the country while benefiting from a 1.2% drop in lead prices. n
