CML Regulated Mortgage Survey -
Paul Hunt, managing director of Phoebus Software said: “The colossal but temporary impact of stamp duty is behind March’s skyrocketing lending figures. While bunting and party hats would normally be in order following a 76% monthly rise in lending value to first-timers, March’s figures are the crest of a wave. April undoubtedly will show falls on a similar scale. But that’s not to say mortgage lending is excessively conservative at the moment. That such a large rise was possible is down to lenders’ confidence in the ability of first-time buyers rushing through the closing fiscal window to service debt in the long-term. We will see an apparently violent fall in lending next month, but these big fluctuations mask the true picture of ongoing steady progress in the lending market”.
Comment on GDP -
Paul Hunt, managing director of Phoebus Software said: “For an embattled government, the arrival of the double-dip recession is brutal news, but the mortgage lending industry is unlikely to clamber into its shell as a result of these figures. Of course, recession adds to the powerful headwinds of domestic austerity and the ongoing sovereign debt calamity in the Eurozone, but their past resilience to those forces means we can still afford some optimism about the future direction of mortgage lending. Despite battling adverse economic winds, lenders have in the last year increased gross mortgage lending has risen by more than 5%. Those who complain this is still far before the pre-crisis are forgetting this growth has come at a time when lenders could have been forgiven for shutting up shop and riding out the storm. The truth is that mortgage lenders have shown remarkable confidence in the UK’s mortgage borrowers and while a return to recession will give that confidence a knock, their activity will continue to be characterised by a proactive and optimistic approach”.