The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has released data for February 2012. It shows that gross lending figures were very similar to those for January.
Gross mortgage lending in February was an estimated £10.7 billion. This is an increase from January when the figure was £10.65 billion, and a 14% rise when compared to February 2011 (£9.4 billion).
Bob Parnell, Chief Economist at the CML commented:
“Property sales remain fundamentally weak, but have shown strong year-on-year increases since the closing months of 2011. Allowing for the seasonal factors that depress activity over the winter months, the underlying picture for house purchase activity continues to show some buoyancy.”
Parnell argues that there seems to be a generalised improvement, citing the recent RICS survey to show increased optimism. He argues that the stamp duty holiday for first time buyers has not been driving the activity in the market, with very small changes in the percentage of first time buyers.
The launch of the NewBuy scheme is also touched upon in the CML market commentary. Bob Parnell comments that: “The launch of the NewBuy scheme is an important addition to lenders’ toolkit in addressing the various needs of would-be borrowers. The scheme has the potential to offset the dip in first-time buyer activity that the end of the stamp duty concession on 24 March may produce.”
He cautioned that “While NewBuy will enable households to buy a new property, its overall market impact will depend on the scale and composition of eventual take-up.”
The data released by the CML seems to show signs of buoyancy returning to the market. Hopefully this can carry on through into the next quarter.
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