* Gross mortgage lending was £11.6bn in January. This was 18% lower than both December and January 2004.
* Net mortgage lending (gross lending minus repayments) rose by £4.2bn compared with £5.2bn in December and £5.8bn in January 2004. This compares with an average of £4.5bn in the previous six months.
* There were 126,316 approvals (for all purposes) in January for a total value of £10.3bn. In volume terms, these were 6.2% down on December and 28% weaker than January 2004. Loans approved for house purchase were at their lowest since January 1999 and by number showed the smallest share of overall approvals (25%) since the series started in September 1997. The average approval for house purchase fell back, to £116,200.
* Growth in overall net consumer credit (£1.1bn, seasonally adjusted) strengthened in January. The increase in loans and overdrafts (+£0.7bn) was well above the current monthly average of £0.5bn, while credit card borrowing (£0.4bn) was a little stronger than both December and the previous six months’ average.
David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said:
"After the series disruption in November and December following the changes to regulation, mortgage lending resumed its relatively subdued trend in January and this looks set to continue in the near term as approvals of loans for house purchase and equity withdrawal were very weak, even for a January. The only area of demand holding up is remortgaging where borrowers continue to find good deals to reduce their borrowing costs.
Stronger consumer credit in January reflected an increased demand for personal loans and overdrafts after December’s weak figure in line with the pattern for retail sales in the two months."
Mortgage Lending
* December’s gross lending of £11,642mn was lower than December’s total (£14,237mn) and compared with £14,255mn in January 2004.
* Net mortgage lending rose by £4,238mn, compared with £5,189mn in December. The January rise was weaker than the average of £4,545mn in the previous six months, although the annual growth rate remained at 14%.
* Compared to the same month a year earlier, January’s approvals of house purchase loans were 43% lower by number and 34% lower by value; remortgaging loans were 8% lower by number but 5% higher by value; and equity withdrawal loans were 36% lower by number and 29% lower by value.
Consumer Credit
* New borrowing on credit cards totalled £7,213mn in January. This was well down on the average of the previous six months, but with repayments also a little lower, a seasonally adjusted increase in net lending of £404mn resulted; a little higher than the recent average (+£353mn).
* New lending on personal loans and overdrafts, at £2,809mn, was well up on December but a little lower than the average for the previous six months (£3,108mn). After seasonal adjustment, the rise in net lending of £730mn was well above the average rise of £480mn over the previous six months.
