Mortgage loan total 'fell sharply' in January (BBC)

abaxas

The number of mortgages that the UK's biggest banks agreed with home buyers "fell sharply" in January, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) has said.
The BBA said many buyers had borrowed in December to beat the re-introduction of a lower stamp duty threshold.
The BBA's members approved 35,000 new mortgages to home buyers last month, down from 46,000 in December.
Total mortgage lending fell to just £8bn in January, the lowest monthly amount for eight and a half years.
The BBA also blamed the very cold weather for deterring would-be home buyers.
"It was no surprise to see the January mortgage figures falling back from December, when transactions were being pushed through to beat the end of stamp duty relief," said the BBA's statistics director, David Dooks.
There has been a big hangover from the stamp duty holiday


Melanie Bien, Savills Private Finance.

"There was a natural reaction in the January figures and the bad weather further suppressed market activity," he added.
New year hangover
The BBA's figures echo those published last week by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
The CML also said the rush to buy homes before the government's temporary stamp duty holiday ended had prompted a big drop in mortgage lending last month.
Melanie Bien, of Savills Private Finance, said: "There has been a big hangover from the stamp duty holiday."
And she added: "The very poor weather conditions meant everything ground to a halt."
But she said that the housing market was now about to enter a busier time of the year.
New offers
With house prices recovering slightly over the past year, one of the bigger building societies has launched a new range of mortgages aimed at first-time buyers.
The Newcastle building society is offering loans requiring just 10% deposits, with interest at 4.6% for its two-year tracker mortgage and 5.95% for its two-year fixed rate deal.
However, the Newcastle warned that the funds available for these deals were limited.
Ray Boulger, of the mortgage lenders John Charcol, said: "Both deals are certainly pretty competitive."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8529886.stm

Key facts :

The BBA's members approved 35,000 new mortgages to home buyers last month, down from 46,000 in December.



Total mortgage lending fell to just £8bn in January, the lowest monthly amount for eight and a half years.

Jonbvn

Is it sharply or slowly or is it just all spin?

Perhaps the threads could be merged?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

"It was no surprise to see the January mortgage figures falling back from December, when transactions were being pushed through to beat the end of stamp duty relief," said the BBA's statistics director, David Dooks.

"There was a natural reaction in the January figures and the bad weather further suppressed market activity," he added.

Much as expected then.

mystic_trev

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Much as expected then.

No - 35,083....Against expected 45k

Rinoa

abaxas wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8529886.stm

Key facts :

The BBA's members approved 35,000 new mortgages to home buyers last month, down from 46,000 in December.



Total mortgage lending fell to just £8bn in January, the lowest monthly amount for eight and a half years.

Faced with buying in December or paying £1750 more to buy in January most chose December.

Journos and bears dumbfounded.

doire_2

Wrong type of snow again

Really2

doire wrote: »

Wrong type of snow again

No just the coldest winter (due to be announced) for 30 years.

If it is still happening when (if:)) the weather picks up it could be interesting.

chucky

Rinoa wrote: »

Faced with buying in December or paying £1750 more to buy in January most chose December.

Journos and bears dumbfounded.

what are the average mortgage amounts compared to Nov and Dec - are they out yet?

if they're decreasing it's bear food if they're flat it's not good news for the poor little pessimists as it means prices are remaining stable

Emy1501

Unless I'm missing something there was no real spike in December. Nov was about 45K and Dec was not that much more. If there had been a big spike in Decembers figure then could understand people comments about these figures being expected. Next months figures will be interesting though.

nembot

Snow would not put me off buying a new house, worst excuse so far...

Lets face it, if the BBC is going with negative articles, things are worse than they seem.

Generali

If the weather in the UK has been nearly as bad as it appears from Sunny Australia(TM) then I'd imagine that the predictive powers of January's economic data are likely to be weak at best.

I even promise not to say, "I told you so" if/when M4 for Jan is YoY negative for the household sector. Well I'll try not to do it.