Mortgage and business lending see summer slowdown
HOMEBUYERS and businesses had a tougher time accessing finance during July, figures suggest.
Banking data from trade body UK Finance shows mortgage approvals and business lending both dropped on an annualised basis in July, while consumer credit grew.
The value of business lending fell by 2.2 per cent annually to £263.3bn in July, while business deposits were up 1.9 per cent to £371.7bn over the period.
All but two sectors saw a fall in lending, with only mining and manufacturing seeing a boost at 2.7 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively.
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The number of mortgage approvals for house purchases fell 0.6 per cent to 43,976 during the month, although the number of remortgages rose 2.8 per cent to 28,294.
Actual mortgage lending values were up 7.6 per cent annually to £24.6bn.
However, there was growth in consumer credit, with annual credit card spending up 8.1 per cent to £11.1bn and personal loans up 5.6 per cent to £1.6bn.
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“Mortgage lending has gone from strength to strength in July, paying no heed to the traditional summer slowdown,” John Goodall, chief executive of Landbay, said.
“The surge in demand was driven by the anticipated rate rise, with many people remortgaging to fix a good deal.
“More than 3.5 million residential mortgages are on a variable or tracker rate, and the consequences of the interest rate rise for consumers are yet to be seen. However, the long-term rate over the next five years is not expected be much higher than it is today so I don’t expect to see considerable impact on pricing.”
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