The mortgage sector ended the decade with strong December activity as mortgage approvals increased by 24% between December 2018 and December 2019.
According to UK Finance’s December 2019 Household Update, mortgages approvals increased from 26,145 in December 2018 to 32,451 in the final month of the last decade.
Similarly, remortgaging approvals also enjoyed a 30% year-on-year rise from 20,653 in December 2018 to 26,979 in December 2019.
Throughout the entire year, the 982,286 mortgages approved by high street banks during 2019 was 7.4% more than the total for 2018.
Split into the overall figure’s constituent parts, approved home mortgages increased by 8% annually, remortgages rose by 7.9% and other secured borrowing increased by 3% between 2018 and 2019.
Commenting on the December 2019 Household Finance Update from UK Finance, John Phillips, National Operations Director at Just Mortgages, said:
“The latest figures from UK Finance provide further evidence that people are beginning to move on from the Brexit-induced torpor of recent years.
“It’s to be expected that December is a slower month – as well as Christmas, we also had the general election campaign to contend with this time round.
“Despite this added distraction, the number of mortgage approvals for purchase was up nearly 25 per cent, and remortgaging activity more than 30 per cent, compared to December 2018.
“This reflect a growing feeling that people don’t want to put their lives on hold any longer. With the general election out of the way, and the country set to leave the EU at long last in just a few days’ time, we can expect that feeling to become even stronger over the next few months.”
