The latest Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Statistics, revealed advances in fixed rate mortgages dropped notably, with the proportion decreasing to 77.6% in Q1 from 82.2% in the previous quarter.
While new mortgage commitments increased quarterly, from £46.3bn to £47.2bn, this stage of the mortgage application process dipped year-on-year by 3.5%.
Gross advances on higher loan-to-value mortgages also decreased in Q1, with the proportion of advances with an LTV of over 90% falling by 0.4% percentage points over the quarter to 3.3%.
The overall interest rate on gross advances decreased by 25 basis points to 3.01% from 3.26% in the previous quarter – the lowest interest rate on gross advances since the series began in 2007.
The value of residential loans advanced to first-time buyers fell over the quarter to £8.9bn from £11.9bn at the end of 2014, and from £9.4bn in the first three months of 2014.
Buy-to-let lending retained positive growth, however, with mortgages advanced growing from £6.8bn in Q1 2014 to £7.6bn in Q1 2015, but remaining unchanged from Q4.
