However, this figure represents a 14% fall from the £25 billion of lending in April 2004.
Lending for house purchase in April increased by 7% to £9.1 billion, compared to £8.5 billion in March. Nevertheless, this was still 28% lower than the £12.7 billion in April last year. Lending for house purchase accounted for 43% of all lending, up from 40% in March. Within lending for house purchase, the proportion of loans going to first-time buyers and movers differed only slightly from 31% and 69% in March to 32% and 68% in April.
Remortgaging saw a fall of 3% to £9.4 billion in April down from £9.7 billion in March. Even so, this figure remains higher than the value of house purchase lending for the fourth consecutive month. Remortgaging as a proportion of total lending also fell for the fourth successive month from 46% in March to 44% in April.
The average pricing of fixed-rate products continued to fall in April to 5.40% from 5.44% in March. Variable-rate pricing also fell, from 5.87% in March to 5.84% in April. Take-up of fixed-rate products increased to 42% of the total, compared with 40% in March and only 30% in April last year.
Commenting on the latest figures, CML Director General Michael Coogan said: "The latest lending figures remain in line with our broad expectations for the year. It now seems clear that the market has stabilised at its new lower level, and we expect to see a continued soft landing as long as the Bank of England resists any new temptation to raise interest rates."
