Trends in Lending report claims house prices and mortgage lending will remain steady

The Bank of England has recently released its Trends in Lending report, which has shown that mortgage lending levels have remained steady over the first quarter of this year, and that whilst there may be a slight increase in mortgage lending over the course of the year lending levels will remain pretty steady overall.

The Bank of England report also indicated that property prices would remain flat over the course of this year, having increased slightly over recent months. Mortgage availability is expected to increase but only by a slight amount, and Loan to Value ratios are also expected to increase slightly over the course of this year.

Whilst the data from the report reflects improvement compared to last year, when the recession and the financial crisis were still taking their toll heavily on the property and mortgage markets, the climate is still expected to remain challenging for many people that are looking to get onto the property ladder or take out a mortgage for a new property.

Lenders are still likely to be looking for higher deposits, although there has been an increase in the number of lenders that are offering 10 percent deposit mortgages, which has provided some degree of relief for cash strapped first time buyers who have suffered hugely over the past couple of years since the onset of the global credit crisis.

One first time buyer said: “I hope to see the amount of deposit that lenders are looking for to come down over this year, although I’m not sure that it will. I would love to be able to get a mortgage and buy a property but until the deposit level comes down I’m stuck with renting, which is just money down the drain.”

Tags: finance, Mortgage loan, percent deposit mortgages, house prices, deposit, mortgage