UK Mortgages Dip But Prices Rise

The number of mortgages approved by high street banks for house purchases dropped slightly in July, but remained higher than in the months immediately following the introduction of new lending rules in the spring.

Seasonally adjusted figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) showed 42,792 homebuyer loans were approved during the month, worth a total of £7bn. The figure was down from the 43,180 approvals in June and below the previous six-month average of 44,536.

However, an increase in the average value of newly approved loans, from £163,800 in June to £167,600 in July, meant the total amount agreed was up month on month, and approval numbers were 12% higher than in July 2013.

Non-seasonally adjusted figures showed an increase of just over 300 to 48,621 house purchase approvals – the highest number since October 2013.

In April, the mortgage market review introduced new rules on lending which forced banks and building societies to carry out tougher affordability checks on borrowers and to stress-test their finances to ensure they could keep up repayments even if interest rates rise.

via The Guardian

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza