House purchases behind mortgage growth

Mortgage lending to people looking to move home has shot up over the past year, with the value of loans rising by nearly in a third, according to the latest set of market figures.
Stats provided by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) – the sector’s umbrella group – show that lending to people moving home in July was up 31% year-on-year, to £7.2bn.
The latest figures also suggest a surge in first-time buyers. A total of 30,200 first-time buyer loans were completed during July, which was a rise of 25% on July 2013. These loans were collectively worth £4.6bn.
The market for people looking to remortgage is not so buoyant, however. The number of remortgages completed was down 15% on a year earlier, with a total value of £3.9bn (a fall of 5%).
But there was an increase in lending to landlords, with 17,500 buy-to-let loans made during July, worth a total of £2.4bn. This was more than 25% higher than the amount advanced a year earlier.
“The market has shown steady growth in house purchase and buy-to-let over the past few months, with general improvements in economic factors across the UK allowing for more people to enter the property market,” said CML director-general Paul Smee.
“There have been many factors over the past year that could have caused disruption but the market has remained resilient and lenders have shown themselves adaptable to all this change.”
The CML represents lenders that are responsible for 95% of all residential mortgage lending in the UK.