Home loans remain down on last years levels, new statistics from lenders have affirmed.
More mortgages were offered to homebuyers in April than in the previous month, new figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show.
According to the body, 50,700 loans to purchase were offered across the month; this is an increase of 5,000 from March, but is also 36 per cent below the number offered in April 2007. The continuing downturn has been blamed on the credit crunch, which has exerted downwards pressure on house prices and has led to many mortgage firms tightening their lending criteria.
This trend in particular was shown by the rising deposit requirements found to be currently being demanded from lenders: first-time buyers were shown to be putting in an average of 13 per cent of the property value in their initial lump-sum payment in order to secure the loan. The ratio of average buyers' income to average loan size was also found to have contracted from 3.35 to 3.3 over the month, a further sign that lenders are becoming more cautious about extending credit to borrowers.
Michael Coogan, CML director general, said that he was downbeat on the UK property market's prospects for 2008. "Monthly house purchase lending volumes continue to be lower than last year's levels and there will be a further weakening in coming months," he commented.
