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Mortgage approvals rise faster than expected

British mortgage approvals for house purchase and mortgage lending were at their highest since January last month, but Britons repaid their credit card bills at the fastest rate in more than five years, Bank of England data showed on Wednesday. Mortgage lending grew by £1.14bn in April, versus forecasts for a £950m increase. Photo: REX


10:02AM BST 30 May 2012

The central bank said mortgage approvals numbered 51,823 in April, up from 51,067 in March. Analysts had forecast a reading of 50,100.

Mortgage lending grew by £1.14bn, versus forecasts for a £950m increase.

However, the figures are still far weaker than the norm before the 2007-2008 financial crisis, when monthly mortgage approvals ran at around 90,000. The number of home sales has slumped since then and the property market has ceased to be a major driver of consumer spending.

Net lending to Britons rose by £1.407bn in April, down from an increase of £1.728bn in March.

Growth in consumer credit slowed much more sharply, dipping to a net increase of £268m in April. Analysts had predicted a £200m rise in consumer credit.


Britons repaid a net £118m on their credit cards - the biggest net repayment since August 2006.

The BoE's preferred gauge of money supply, M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations, climbed 0.7pc on the month after a 0.6pc rise in March.

Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said: “The secured lending figures are a little stronger than the previous month, but nothing to get particularly excited about. Activity is still down on the levels reported at the end of last year. However, it is heartening that at least we haven’t yet seen any evidence of the sharp tightening in mortgage availability which the latest Credit Conditions Survey had predicted."

He expects housing activity to remain relatively flat for the rest of the year and said the drop in credit card lending was consistent with April’s poor retail sales figures.

"Clearly the bad weather kept consumers away from the shops and we would expect to see this reversed in May, although in a wider historical context lending flows remain very weak,” he said. In Finance» First rate rise in 'August 2019' - latest market prediction Why we've launched Telegraph Investor

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