Mortgage providers report that May saw remortgaging approvals of 24,248, which is a fall of 10% against last year and below the six-monthly trend of 26,494.
The British Bankers’ Association reported house purchase approval numbers in May of 40,347 at 3.3% lower than May 2016 and slightly down on the monthly average of 41,923 over the previous half-year.
Gross mortgage borrowing in May totalled £13.3bn much in line with recent months and 9% higher than a year before.
Net mortgage borrowing in May was 2.4% higher than a year ago, said the trade body which is one of the six bodies, which includes the CML to merge into a single trade association UK Finance at the end of this month.
Consumer credit annual growth was 5.1% in May, compared with 6.4% in April. The decline in May was driven by weaker growth in personal loans and overdrafts with annual growth falling from 6.3% to 4.8%, while growth in credit card borrowing also slowed from 6.4% to 5.5% reflecting weaker retail sale volumes in May.
Annual house price growth has also dropped to a rate of just 3.3%, according to the May Halifax house price index.
Prices increased by 0.4% in May according to Halifax, to take the average house price to £220,706. However, over the quarter prices have fallen by 0.2%, while annual house price growth is now markedly lower than the 10% rate seen in March last year.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.