Mortgage lending rises five per cent due to time of year
MORTGAGE lending ticked up by five per cent in October, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), although this was mainly down to seasonal factors.
Lending rose to £13.5bn in October, compared to £12.9bn in September, the CML said, although it was still down 27 per cent on the £18.5bn that was lent to homebuyers in October 2008. “This is typical seasonal activity between September and October – the average monthly rise over the last decade has been five per cent,” the CML said.
It added that the figures for October fitted in with its forecast for gross mortgage lending of some £142bn in 2009.
And it said that the housing and mortgage market would show only modest improvement in 2010, as the economy “gradually recovers”.
Separately, the flow of lending to businesses contracted for an eighth consecutive month in September as firms continued to use funds raised on capital markets to pay down bank debt, the Bank of England said yesterday.
Bank lending to businesses fell by £4.6bn in September. That was more than the £1.1bn contraction in August but less than the record £15.6bn contraction in July of this year.