This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The amount of residential mortgage funds lent has risen by over 10% in the past year, according to new research.
Mortgage Lending Rises
The amount approved for residential mortgages in the second quarter (Q2) of 2015 was £59.3 billion, up from £47.2 billion in Q1 and an 11% increase over the year.
The Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released this data yesterday.
In total, 15.1% more was lent in Q2 this year than Q1.
The study also found that there were 200,273 house purchases in Q2 and a further 68,764 in July.
The amount of money lent for buy-to-let purposes also rose annually, up from £7 billion in Q2 2014 to £8.3 billion in Q2 this year.
Overall, the amount of residential loan money outstanding was £1.272 billion in Q2, up 0.8% on Q1 and a 1.8% yearly increase.
The proportion of funds lent at fixed rates grew from 77.6% in Q1 to 78.9% in Q2. The average interest rate on this money was down from 2.99% in Q1 to 2.83% in Q2 – the lowest rate since the BoE/FCA records began in 2007.
The value of residential loans approved for first time buyers rose over the quarter, from £8.9 billion in Q1 to £10.8 billion in Q2.
However, this is slightly down on the amount lent to first time buyers in Q2 2014, when it totalled £11.4 billion.
