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Welcome to our news and information page where you will find up to date news items about the UK property market, and helpful articles to enable you to sell or rent out your property quickly.U.K. mortgage approvals climbed in October.
(Bloomberg) -- U.K. mortgage approvals climbed in October to the highest level in 1 1/2 years, adding to signs the economy is shaking off the recession.
Lenders granted 57,345 loans to buy homes, compared with 56,205 in September, the Bank of England said today in London. The median of 22 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey was 57,000. Net consumer lending fell by 579 million pounds ($956 million), the most since records began in 1993.
U.K. house prices rose for a fourth consecutive month in November as a shortage of homes sustained the property market, Hometrack Ltd. said today. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said last week that the pace of economic growth may be ``pretty buoyant'' in the short term even if the recovery isn't ``particularly strong.''
``We will see mortgage approvals continue to rise but not to anywhere near the sort of levels we saw pre-crisis,'' George Buckley, chief U.K. economist at Deutsche Bank AG in London, said before the report. ``The economy's recovery will be slow and steady to begin with but I'm not sure that's sustainable. We will see some bumps along the way.''
Net mortgage lending rose by 922 million pounds in October, compared with 898 million pounds in the previous month, the central bank said.
House prices increased 0.2 percent in November, the same pace as in October, Hometrack said today.
Rising unemployment may still curb house-price gains. Consumer confidence fell 4 points to minus 17 in November, GfK NOP said in a report today. A gauge of whether people think this is a good time to make major purchases dropped seven points to minus 19.
Today's data suggested consumers are more reluctant to add to their debts, which now total an outstanding 1,457,899,000 pounds, down about 400 million pounds from September.
Net consumer credit fell as overdrafts and loans dropped 713 pounds, the most since records began in 1993. That offset a 134 million-pound increase in credit-card lending, the Bank of England said.