Mortgage lending hits a new July record, says CML

20 Aug 07

Gross mortgage lending reached a new record for the month of July, totalling £34.4 billion, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Although this is down by 1% on the £34,847 of lending achieved in June, it is 13% higher than the £30.6 billion lent in the same month last year.

Mortgage lending remains robust despite the five interest rate rises since last August - although we have yet to see the full impact of higher rates. Lending is currently being fuelled by a large number of people remortgaging to better deals in case rates go any higher.

As we move into the autumn the cumulative effects of these rate rises will become more pronounced, and we expect this to feed through to lower levels of mortgage lending as the year progresses. We still believe, however, that we are on target to reach a record £360 billion of mortgage lending this year.

Notes to editors

1. The Council of Mortgage Lenders' members are banks, building societies and other lenders who together undertake around 98% of all residential mortgage lending in the UK. There are 11.7 million mortgages in the UK, with loans worth over £1.1 trillion.

2. The next gross lending press release will be published on Thursday 20 September.