Mortgages and a glimmer of hope

Posted on 21 August 2008 by Drew

No Comments

News from the Council of Mortgage Lenders that lending activity picked up very slightly in July, with £24.8 billion advanced to borrowers. This is up a modest 5% from June, but still down 27% year on year.

Whilst one should always be extremely wary of taking one month’s statistics to highlight a point, in a market that has been sadly bereft of any good news, it is a ray of previously unseen light. For now, we wait for the August figures to see if there is the suggestion of a positive trend developing.

Alongside this, we have also seen a number of lenders show signs that competition may be returning to the mortgage market. Some lenders have been reducing their rates as dramatically as they increased them six months ago. One lender has even cut their rates by a whopping 0.7% on some of its products.

The other good news that is worth highlighting is that another lender has increased its maximum loan to value back to 90% from the current norm of 75%. Granted you still pay more in the rate, but this gap also appears to be slowly shrinking. Let’s hope it is a sign of the times…

Category: Interest rates, Mortgage Lenders, Mortgages

• Save to del.icio.us
• Digg this story