UK mortgage approvals slip to six-month low
The number of new mortgages approved by UK banks fell to a six-month low in September, survey data has revealed, suggesting Britain’s property market is slowing as Brexit uncertainty continues.
Read more: UK house prices suffer slowest October rise since 2008
Banking trade association UK Finance said banks gave the green light to 42,310 loans for new homes last month, down from 42,527 in August, in seasonally-adjusted terms.
Remortgaging jumped, however, with approvals hitting 32,649, their highest level since November 2017.
Year on year, the total number of mortgages approved by the main high street banks was rose by 13.5 per cent in September, while remortgages jumped 23.4 per cent.
UK Finance cautioned that September 2018 “was a particularly subdued month for the mortgage market,” making a yearly comparison somewhat distorted.
Hansen Lu, property economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said: “While annual growth on the UK Finance measure has stayed strong, that reflects a shift in market share towards the main high street banks.
“The big picture is one of a stagnant mortgage market, which will be held back by high house prices in the coming years, regardless of the Brexit outcome.”
Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said the strong annualised figures may have been driven by “markedly improved earnings growth in tandem with recent record high employment”.
Yet he added: “The fact that mortgage approvals eased back for a second month running in September to be at a six-month low suggests that housing market activity remains constrained amid major uncertainties.”
Read more: Uncertainty to weigh on economy even after Brexit deal, warns Moody’s
“It is also notable that the labour market is now showing increasing signs of faltering.”
(Image credit: Getty)