Lending to first-time buyers in November up on previous month

January 17, 2017

Press release today from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) headlines ‘House purchase lending up 5% in November’

Home-owners borrowed £11bn for house purchase, up 5% month-on-month and 2% year-on-year. First-time buyers borrowed £4.7bn, up 4% on October and 9% on November last year.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, commented: “November lending reflected stable market conditions. Overall, 2016 did not match recent years in terms of house purchase lending growth, but lending remained resilient through regulatory and political change and aspirations for home-ownership remain strong in the UK. Our forecasts for 2017 may be less bullish than a year ago, as economic uncertainty weighs on the market, but we still predict 1.2m transactions and a slight increase in gross lending to £248bn.

“Buy-to-let lending, driven by remortgage activity, saw its strongest monthly lending level since the stamp duty changes on second properties introduced last April. Despite this, we expect buy-to-let lending levels in both 2016 and 2017 to prove lower than their 2015 recent peak as further tax changes take effect”.

Read the CML press release in full click here

Allen Walkey

Highly experienced businessman with a successful career in property sales and investment both in the UK and abroad. Now a freelance writer and blogger for the property and Investment Industry, keeping readers up-to-date with changes and events in a rapidly changing world.

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