Total gross lending rose for the second month running to reach £14.5bn. Within this total, house purchase lending accounted for 56,000 loans totalling £7.5bn. This was up from 47,000 loans totalling £7.1bn in July 2008.
The rise in house purchase lending was concentrated more heavily towards home movers in July compared to June. There were 20,400 first-time buyer loans and 35,700 home mover loans in July, up 18% and 28% respectively on June. Over three quarters of mortgages taken out in July were at fixed rates, with borrowers able to lock in to an average fixed rate of 4.7%.
Paul Samter, economist at the CML, said lending for house purchase was increasing but there were still constraints.
He added: “These constraints are affecting the lending industry’s capacity to fund increased lending, as well as less consumer motivation to remortgage for the time being. The overall lending picture is likely to stay relatively subdued for some time, especially as the wider economy is far from robust as yet.”
