Mortgage approvals rise

Despite continuing Brexit uncertainty, a total of 85,931 mortgages were approved by the main high street banks in August and mortgage approvals for home purchases were 3.2% higher than in 2018, according to data from UK Finance. Remortgage approvals were 0.1% higher and approvals for other secured borrowing were 0.4% lower than August last year. Mike Scott, chief property analyst at Yopa, comments: “This suggests that housing market activity has now completely recovered from the slowdown around the first Brexit deadline in March. A new slowdown may soon begin, as the October deadline draws closer and the political uncertainty seems no closer to resolution, but it is likely that the market will again recover quickly once the short-term outlook is clearer.”

City AM (25/09/2019)