March saw a welcome increase in mortgage lending, according to BBC News. However, while gross lending did rise by 16 per cent, up to ?11.5 billion from February, it?s still less then half the amount lent in March last year.
There has also been a 40 per cent jump in home sales according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) figures.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders aren?t quite celebrating though as they say this is something that regularly occurs during this season and that lending and house sales would remain low for a while. While March may have seen a rise, the first three months of the year saw the lowest figures in mortgage lending for any quarter since the start of 2001.
Despite this, Michael Coogan, director general of the CML said it was a good sign: ?It?s a seasonal factor here that people start to look around to move house in the middle of the better weather. What we said at the beginning of the year was that we expected over the course of 2009, ?145 billion to be lent, and we are on track with that forecast, and that has to be compared with ?363 billion in 2007.?
Sales could now start to rise, after becoming dangerously low in 2008, with the HMRC?s figures showing 60,000 property sales in March ? worth at least ?40,000 each ? compared to 43,000 sold in February.
Another couple of signs of what lies ahead are the increasing number of mortgages approved but not lent as yet, according to the Bank of England, and estate agents who have said that there has been a rise in the number of house-buying enquires over the past couple of months.
Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight said: ?House price activity is beginning to pick up to a limited extent in response to the substantial fall in house prices from their 2007 peak levels and markedly reduced mortgage rates.?
