Last month a lot of First-Time Buyers was rushing to complete their Mortgage Approvals and Home purchases ahead of the 31st October Brexit deadline date. Well, we all know how that went.
The Bank of England showed the latest figures of approvals from Mortgage Advisors and house purchases that reached 65,919 in September 2019 after falling to a three-month low in August 2019. High rates of employment could also explain why the rise put approvals within the 63,000 to 68,000 range that was held since the backend of 2016. However, the rate of the lending failed to reach the 17-month peak reported in July.
A Remortgage approvals are also strengthened to 49,000 per month. A net mortgage borrowing by homeowners was up by £3.8bn in the last month, with an unchanged annual growth rate of just 3.2%.
Stephen Kerrigan, Mortgage Advisor has said:
“it is possible that a Mortgage activity may have been lifted to July by some people looking to complete a Home buy before Brexit was due to occur on the 31st October 2019 given the major uncertainties to what could happen in a Post-Brexit Britain, as well as a town such as Doncaster that relies on people traveling from London and afar by train and DSA (Doncaster Sheffield Airport).”
Markedly improved earnings growth in tandem with recent record high employment may also have provided some recent support to housing market activity. Mortgage numbers are a long way off their record highs but approvals are proving exceptionally resilient given the environment we’re in. In many respects, the lack of visibility around Brexit is focusing people’s minds. Prospective buyers are genuinely worried about missing the boat if a deal gets done and house prices quickly rebound.
A new slowdown may soon begin, as the October deadline has been extended yet again until January 2020 and the political uncertainty seems no closer to resolution, but it is likely that the market will again recover quickly once the short-term outlook is clearer. The Property market has backed off from the decade high it registered in September but, that shouldn’t detract from what has recently been a strong story in the face of adversity. Credit card spending totalled to £11bn in August 2019, an increase of one percent from the previous year. Repayments are in line with spending which is indicating that consumers are managing their finances effectively.
Personal borrowing through Mortgages was 4.5% higher than August 2018 and the overdraft borrowing was increased by 1.2%
