11% growth in gross lending in January

20 Feb 08

Gross mortgage lending rose to an estimated £26.5 billion in January, up 11% from £23.9 billion in December, and reached a similar level to January 2007 when it was £26.6 billion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

This is a good performance given the unsettled market conditions since last summer. Typically lending is lower in January than in December. However, gross lending volumes are expected to be lower in the coming months following the fall in mortgage approvals recorded by the Bank of England towards the end of last year.

CML Director General Michael Coogan commented:

“Gross lending held up well in January. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the housing market at the moment and we expect lending volumes to be lower in the coming months.
“It is likely that demand will be stronger for remortgaging than for house purchase in the short term. Home-buyers might be more inclined to transact if their moving costs were reduced - and the government has the opportunity to address this by raising stamp duty thresholds and cutting the rates of stamp duty in next month's Budget.”

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 11.8 million mortgages in the UK, with loans worth over £1.1 trillion.

2. The next gross lending press release will be on Thursday 20 March 2008.

3. The CML’s gross lending data is an estimate for the previous month based on lending figures provided by a sample of lenders representing more than 70% of the mortgage market. The aggregate of these figures is scaled up to represent the whole market.

4. The CML also publishes detailed lending data from its Regulated Mortgage Survey a few weeks after each gross lending press release. This includes a revised total lending figure which is taken from the Bank of England.