Banks Mortgage Approval Rates Rise by 4%
June 22nd, 2009
The amount of mortgage approvals in March this year rose from around 38,000 to 39,230 which is a 4% rise on the previous month and according to the figures released by the Bank of England, the rise in mortgage approvals might continue going up.
The sum of all the mortgages approved by the banks in March came to £4.6 billion which is a increase of £900 million from February, however, this increase of £900m is not as large as the monthly average of £1.6 billion or even as large as the rise in approvals we saw in February of £1.5 billion, however, the total amount of money that was approved in mortgages in March, £4.6 billion, was much higher than the monthly average calculated from the previous 6 months figures.
There was also good news regarding the building societies, the overall amount of mortgages approved by building societies rose to £1,542m which is double the amount approved in February.
Finally, the British Bankers Association released new figures regarding lending to small businesses. They said that their figures showed that lending to small businesses rose by £271 million in March of this year. However, these figures do not match with the results that the Treasury Committee released saying how small businesses are finding it harder to borrow money from the banks.
Although these figures sound good, mortgage approvals are seen to be forward thinking, the actual mortgage lending in March only rose by £800 million which is far less than expected and a lot less than the 6 month average of £1.2 billion.
Although of the above figures are good news for the economy, there are still concerns that house prices could slump again and take us back to the beginning, however, even if they house prices continue to rise, the economy is still is a delicate state.
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