The Council of Mortgage Lenders claims that it is 'too early' to see an improvement in the housing market.
Positive reports on the housing market do not necessarily point to a recovery, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has warned.
The CML released its figures for mortgage lending in April, revealing that total lending for the month stood at £10.4 billion, down from March's figure of £11.4 billion. This fall was put down to seasonal variations, given that this year Easter fell during April while last year it fell in March.
However, taking March and April 2009 together, there was £21.8bn of mortgage lending - down 57 percent from the two months in 2008. Despite Bank of England figures showing mortgage approvals have increased and house price indices appearing to show a slowdown in declines, CML director general Michael Coogan urged caution.
"It's still too early to spot a clear pattern of recovery in the housing market as some commentators have suggested," he said. "Activity remains weak, and we have said we will see volatility in monthly lending figures as we bounce along at the bottom of the market. Our forecast for gross lending of £145 billion in 2009 remains unchanged."
By contrast, total lending for 2008 stood at £257.6 billion, while during 2007 lending reached £363.7 billion.
