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Lending for house purchases remains subdued
Data published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders for mortgage activity in March shows a reduction in the number of mortgages completed. The March 08 figures showed a relatively modest 1% decline to 46.5k from February figures.
The decline from the same period in 2007 was far more significant down 48% from last year’s March figures of 89k. The number of loans for house purchase declined to 46,500 in March, down 1% from 47,200 in February and 48% from 89,000 in March 2007.
The overall mortgage lending figure was also down although not by the same proportion falling from £83.9bn in Q1 2007 to £75bn in 2008. A contributing factor to these figures is the increase in remortgage activity. The Q1 2008 figure shows an increase in the level of remortgage activity to £33.3bn.
