Buyers return to housing market

More money entered the UK housing market in April than at any point since 2007, according to industry group UK Finance, with almost £9bn of home purchase mortgages approved for nearly 43,000 such loans. The number of mortgages was up 6% on the month and more than 11% on April 2018, while remortgaging also picked up - with more than 31,000 homeowners shopping around for a new loan in the month. However gross mortgage lending eased back by 1.4% to £20.3bn year-on-year. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, commented: “April’s marked rise in mortgage approvals suggests that housing market activity may well have got at least some temporary support from the avoidance of a disruptive Brexit at the end of March.”

City AM (28/05/2019)