Mortgage approvals steadily improve: BBA

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Mortgage approvals steadily improve: BBA

Mortgage approvals have improved over the past five months, with the number of purchases in May similar to the underlying trend in 2014, British Bankers’ Association figures have shown.

A five-page BBA release, High Street Banking: May 2015, showed that gross mortgage borrowing for that month was £10.4bn, which was a similar amount to the previous month. However, this was 5 per cent lower than in May 2014.

The BBA found that overall approvals were up by 2 per cent on a yearly basis once the mortgage market review, which came into force on 26 April 2014, was taken into account.

The report said: “Allowing for the effect of the new mortgage rules which slowed down the processing of applications last May, approvals overall were approximately 2 per cent higher, year-on-year.”

Richard Woolhouse, the BBA’s chief economist, said that household borrowing was robust and a sign of a broader economic recovery.

Adviser view

Mark Harris, chief executive of London-based SPF Private Clients, said: “With the general election finally out of the way, strong lending figures demonstrate that confidence in the housing market is riding high.”