New loans bring mortgage lending down in Q1

The UK’s mortgage lending plummeted in the first quarter, with the number of new commitments agreed to by lenders down 5.9% from the previous quarter, reaching their lowest level since 2016, according to the latest Bank of England data. The share of lending to first time buyers also decreased 19.6% in the period, and there was a 9.6% drop in gross advances to £62.4bn. Meanwhile the share of buy-to-let lending increased, accounting for 13.9% of new lending, and remortgaging rose by 3.2 percentage points.

City AM (12/06/2018)