Mortgage lending drops as rates rise

The amount of money lent in new mortgages has dropped by 26.3% year-on-year, according to Bank of England figures. Some £58.8bn was borrowed in new mortgages in the first three months of 2023, the lowest level since the period between April and June 2020 when the pandemic lockdown led to a temporary housing market shutdown. New mortgage applications approved for the coming months totalled £48.9bn, down 40.7% from £82.5bn a year ago and again the lowest since April-June 2020. The share of people borrowing to remortgage increased to 34.8%, up 5.8 percentage points since the same time the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of borrowing to buy a new home was 50.1%, down 0.6 percentage points in a year and again the lowest since the start of the pandemic. Borrowing by buy-to-let landlords accounted for 9.8% of the total, the lowest seen since 2011. 

Daily Mail (17/06/2023)