Fri 20 Jun 2008
More property price gloom from HBOS and CML
HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, piled more misery on the housing market yesterday, with forecasts of a 9% average drop in residential property prices, a 45% slump in house sales and an increase in the volume of people falling into mortgage arrears. The bank had previously expected property prices to plateau this year.Meanwhile, more housing gloom came from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) yesterday. It announced that gross lending totalled an estimated £25.5bn in May, down 19% from the £31.5bn high recorded in May 2007.
Monthly lending levels have continued well below their position last year but at good historic levels. The Bank of England’s approvals figures show that this pattern will continue in coming months, and that lending activity has strongly focused on the remortgage market. But a wide range of banks and building societies continue to offer a range of mortgages in the market place, despite the credit crunch and funding constraints.
CML director general, Michael Coogan commented: “The remortgage market remains on track to meet our forecast for growth this year, demonstrating the resilience of the market despite recent bad news. However, by comparison, the next few months will remain very weak for house purchase activity for the funding reasons, which are now well rehearsed. We still await first signs of the Bank of England’s Special Liquidity Scheme indirectly helping to ease the current logjam.”
Posted by Marc Da-Silva
in Council of Mortgage Lenders, HBOS, Michael Coogan, News on Fri 20 Jun 2008
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