Approvals for house purchase were 48,198, a massive drop from the December figure of 58,223 and below the previous six-month average of 55,924. House purchase approvals are now at their lowest level since May 2009.
Remortgaging approvals at 23,611 were also lower than their December’s figure of 27,322 and lower than the six-month average of 27,226.
Brian Murphy, head of lending at broker Mortgage Advice Bureau, said January was hit particularly hard by the end of the Stamp Duty holiday in December and the arctic weather conditions.
But, he added: “What is more important is that the mortgage market picked up sharply in February, driven by a wider range of new products coming onto the market. Product availability is up by around 30% since the beginning of the year and lenders are starting to compete at higher LTVs. Lenders are still very conservative in their criteria but, overall, the environment for borrowers is much improved on six months ago.”
