London mortgage lending declines in first quarter, CML says
Lending for house purchases in London declined in the first quarter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said.
Data released on Wednesday showed first-time buyers in Greater London borrowed £2.4bn representing 10,000 in the first three months of the year. Both figures represent a 16% decrease quarter-on-quarter and an 11% and 14% year-on-year drop respectively.
The number of loans for home movers declined 18% from the previous quarter to 7,200, while the value of those loans dropped 15% to £2.5bn.
In year-on-year terms, the figures showed an 18% decline in volume and an 11% drop in value, CML said.
However, in the first three months of 2015, re-mortgage lending increased 10% by volume from the previous quarter to 10,800 loans, representing a 13% rise in value to £2.9bn.
Compared to the first quarter of 2014, re-mortgage lending in London was up 2% by volume and 8% by value.
CML figures showed the typical loan size for first-time buyers was £213,750, slightly down from £216,000 in the previous quarter, while the typical gross income of a first-time buyer household was fell to £55,687 from £56,333 in the fourth quarter 2014.
First-time buyers' payment burden in the first quarter was 20.5% of gross income being spent to cover capital and interest payments, lower than the previous quarter's 20.9%.