Although September saw more mortgages being agreed for home buyers compared to August, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said mortgage lending is easing and levelling off, BBC News has reported.
The increase from 50,000 mortgages in August to 51,000 in September still means there were fewer mortgages agreed for home buyers compared to the 53,000 in July. Paul Samter, CML economist said: ?Although the recent bounce-back in house purchase activity is holding up, we remain some way below what might be called ?normal? levels of transactions.?
The property market in the UK has been showing strong signs of recovery this year, with both house sales and house price rising.
The Bank of England stated in October that numbers for approved, but not yet given, mortgages for home buys was at the highest level since March last year. Also in October, HM Revenue & Customs stated that the number of house sales including those without a mortgage increased in September to 82,000. This was double the number of house sales in January.
The tax concession introduced by the Government in September last year to help the UK property market bounce back, allows house buyers to avoid the 1 per cent stamp duty tax on houses sold between ?125,000 and ?175,000.
According to the CML, 132,500 house buys which needed a mortgage avoided stamp duty in the last 12 months. This has accounted for 27 per cent of the total number of home purchases since the concession came into effect.
House buyers have until the end of the year to take advantage of the higher stamp duty threshold before it returns to properties which sell from ?125,000 upwards.
