An improvement in mortgage approvals for house purchases in June, for the fifth month in a row, has boosted optimism in the property market?s bounce-back, BBC News has reported.
The Bank of England?s most recent figures show mortgage approval numbers for home buys increased to 47,584 in June. This compares to 44,169 in May and is the highest number of mortgage approvals since April 2008.
Nevertheless, if compared to mortgage approval figures seen during the property boom, the numbers are still far lower. Commenting on this, Chris Skinner, banking analyst at Balatro, said: ?Demand is flat because potential buyers believe that the bottom of the market has not been reached yet.?
Mr Skinner added that banks were beginning to ensure more customers have easier access to mortgages though.
The latest figures from the Bank of England also revealed that net lending for home purchasing by all lenders increased by ?343 million in June. This is only a small increase on the previous month of May which had in fact seen the slightest rise in house purchase lending ever recorded.
Remortgage approvals rose in June too but the number remained lower than the average number seen in the last six months.
Amit Kara, UK economist at UBS, said: ?I think the mortgage approvals data suggests that the market is improving gradually, and in our view it will continue to improve over the next coming months. This in part because there is resilient demand, but also because Northern Rock and some of the other banks are being encouraged to lend.?
