Expectations dampened down despite strong mortgage figures

A leading figure in the Council of Mortgage Lenders has played down the relevance of newly released figures which have seen mortgage lending rise to their highest level since July 2009.

Gross mortgage lending for August was at £13.4bn, up 6% from July and up over 10% from August last year, making it the highest August figure for three years. However Bob Pannell, chief economist with the CML, said that a closer look at the figures revealed a housing market which, while stable, was nevertheless still subdued.

He said that the figure for August had offset that for July, which had been weaker than expected and that, taken together, the figures for July and August were similar to the same months last year and the year before.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, agreed that the figures did not suggest a significant rise in mortgage advances for house buying and he still expects property prices to fall by about 5% by the middle of next year with little sign of any sustained upturn.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/sep/20/mortgage-lending-25-month-high