Archive for January, 2008

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Loan squeeze sees UK mortgages at a new low

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

UK mortgage approvals dropped in December to the lowest in at least nine years and consumer credit fell as banks curbed lending after contagion from the US subprime mortgage market collapse.

Lenders granted 73,000 loans for house purchase, down from 81,000 in November and the least since records began in January 1999, the Bank of England said in London yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 24 economists was 79,000. Lending on personal loans and overdrafts fell to 265 million pounds (US$530 million), the least in 15 years.

Banks have tightened credit standards and are offering fewer mortgages and unsecured loans, threatening to further pinch Britons with record debt, the Financial Services Authority said on Tuesday. Slowing consumer spending and a weakening housing market add to the case for an interest rate reduction by the Bank of England as soon as its next meeting on February 7.

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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) —

Approvals of mortgage loans in the United Kingdom slipped to 73,000 in December, falling from 81,000 in November and underperforming the six-month rolling average of 100,000, the Bank of England reported Wednesday. Economists were expecting a figure of around 79,000, according to forecasts.

The BOE found that total net lending to individuals rose by 9.1 billion pounds during the month, slightly off the 9.2 billion pound pace seen in November. December net consumer credit rose by 600 million pounds, about half the gain seen the previous month. Net credit card lending was up by 300 million pounds, while other loans and advances also rose by a net 300 million pounds, the bank said.

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UK Mortgages. Rates, Remortgages, Getting a Mortgage.

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008


RICS: Construction trends belie government’s housing aims

29 January 2008 10:30
How often do housing targets and actual data not fit?
Its happened again

The government’s ambitious housing targets do not fit construction activity or demand, according to new data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Last year, the government announced that it hoped to deliver two million extra homes by 2016, rising to three million by 2020, with a focus on ensuring that these properties are built in local communities where they are required.

Yet RICS’s figures suggested that the speed of construction is instead declining, with the majority of building firms reporting an increase in their workload over those recording a fall declining from 17 per cent in the third quarter of 2007 to 16 per cent in the fourth.

Private housing was also found to account for a declining proportion of these companies’ work, while the balance between firms expecting a rise instead of a fall in business over the next quarter dropped to a two-year low of 43 per cent.

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