According to the latest figures from the Bank of England, more mortgages are getting rubber-stamped than at any time since September 2007.
Net mortgage borrowing remained robust at £4.3 billion in October. Mortgage approvals for house purchase increased further to 97,500, the highest since September 2007. Effective interest rates on new mortgage borrowing ticked up to 1.78%.
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: “With mortgages approvals at their highest level since September 2007, the market continues to be robust. But the circumstances are very different to 2007; back then, those highs were followed by the credit crunch but this time around there is far more scrutiny on mortgage underwriting and the assessment of affordability. This, combined with historic low interest rates, mean we should not see a repeat of that crisis.
“There is more good news for mortgage borrowers with greater availability of 90 per cent loan-to-value mortgages as a number of lenders returned to the market in recent days. This should help bring down rates on high LTVs, making those deals more accessible, and further boosting the market.”
The continued strength in borrowing follows high levels of mortgage approvals for house purchase seen over recent months. Mortgage borrowing troughed at £0.2 billion in April, but has since recovered and is slightly higher than the average of £3.9 billion in the six months to February 2020.
The number of mortgage approvals for house purchase continued increasing in October, to 97,500 from 92,100 in September. This was the highest number of approvals since September 2007, 33% higher than approvals in February 2020 and around 10 times higher than the trough of 9,400 approvals in May.
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, said: “The Bank of England figures are always a reliable indicator of past and future housing market activity. As have others in the recent past, they reveal just how determined buyers have been to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday and continuing low interest rates.
“Judging by what has been happening on the ground since, we expect the numbers to remain robust for at least the next month or two until the reduction in activity which we have noticed over the last few weeks as the stamp duty deadline draws close, begins to have an impact on transaction numbers. The underlying strength of the market does not appear to be waning, at least for the time being.”
David Ross, Managing Director of Hometrack, notes that while Hometrack’s data for November shows a softening in the growth rate of approvals, he still believes this will be the busiest pre-Christmas housing market for over 10 years with 100,000 sales set to spill into Q1 next year.
Ross said: “Despite the continued economic uncertainty due to Covid and the possibility of a no deal Brexit, last month saw the greatest month on month growth in house prices for three years. Demand from homemovers has remained buoyant through the continued lockdown and the stamp duty holiday and the latest BoE figures confirm this.
“Typically we expect this time of year to be quieter and, while our data shows a slowing down in new mortgage applications in November, this is the busiest pre-Christmas housing market for over a decade with 100,000 additional sales to be completed before the end of March 2021.”
