March mortgage approvals down
May 1, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
It seems that we may be beginning to see demand for mortgages weakening.
New figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) show that the number of mortgage approvals in March fell compared to the same period last year.
In total, 198,000 mortgages were approved, signalling a fall of eight per cent on the same figures for March 2006.
However, the average mortgage amount rose by 12 per cent in 2007, reaching £150,800.
“Strong levels of gross mortgage lending reflect homebuyers and homeowners seeking out fixed rate mortgages as protection against rising interest rates,” said David Dooks, director of statistics at the BBA.
He went on to say that the drop on mortgage approvals indicated that “weaker demand is starting to emerge”.
The BBA’s figures also show that credit card borrowing fell by £0.1 billion in March, signalling a three per cent drop compared to figures for the same month in 2006.
Borrowing on personal loans and overdrafts remained pretty constant.
