This is almost identical to January’s gross lending figure of £9.475bn and slightly lower than the £9.419bn borrowed in February 2010.
Although lending remains weak overall, remortgage activity has picked up, but even this is still weaker than a year ago, which is suprising given the lull after the Stamp Duty concession ended in December 2009.
Commenting on today’s gross lending figure, CML chief economist Bob Pannell said: “There is little in the latest batch of market data that would cause us to revise our market forecasts for this year, and nothing that alters our underlying view that this is going to be a challenging year for households and the housing market.
“The housing market remains stuck in a rut and, while we do not anticipate much relief in next week’s Budget, it does present an opportunity for the chancellor to address the reform of stamp duty. What we have instead is the introduction of a new 5% band. That is an irrelevance for the majority of home-buyers but another indication of the haphazard and arbitrary nature of this tax, where reform is long overdue.”
Brian Murphy, head of lending at mortgage broker, Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “The stand-out trend in the mortgage market at present is the increase in the number of rate-wary borrowers remortgaging onto fixed rates. People know that rate rises are coming and they are locking in now before fixed rates move higher. Essentially, borrowers are running for cover.”
John Mawdsley, chief executive officer of Omnii Solutions, said he didn’t expect much cause for cheer from the budget, but added that he expects to see lending increase in the coming months as the direction of the economy becomes more apparent.
