* Gross (new) mortgage lending totalled £14.2bn in January. The month usually sees subdued new lending, but this January also saw a greatly reduced level of redemptions so that a strong rise in net lending, of £5.9bn, resulted.
* December and January are usually weak months for loan approval numbers and the latest period followed that picture. Largely reflecting fewer approvals for house purchase, 176,200 loans were approved in January for a total value of £12.2bn (similar numbers were seen in January 2003, when 177,300 loans were approved for a value of £10.9bn). Moderate activity in the housing market was reflected in the average approval for house purchase falling sharply, to £100,800.
* Net consumer credit rose by more than the recent average, by £0.9bn in January. The credit card element of this borrowing accounted for a revised +£0.2bn, with new card borrowing fairly well matched by repayments.
David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said:
"The turn of the year usually sees weaker mortgage activity and this year was no exception, as witnessed by lower gross lending and numbers of loan approvals. In fact, the strong net lending figure in January was the product of the banks seeing fewer redemptions than of late, suggesting that the major banks were retaining customers, whilst competing successfully for new borrowers.
The picture for personal loans and overdrafts was very similar to previous Januarys, but card borrowing continues to grow slowly, as cardholders' repayments largely offset new spending."
Mortgage Lending
* January's gross lending of £14,229mn was 10% less than December's total, though it was 9% above the total in January 2003.
* The seasonally adjusted rise in January's net lending was £5,897mn, well above the trend average of +£5,400mn over the previous six months.
* Compared to the same month a year earlier, January's approvals of house purchase loans were 11% higher by number and 29% by value; the number of remortgaging loans were 6% lower by number, though little changed by value; and equity withdrawal loans were 5% lower by number, though little changed by value.
Consumer Credit
* New borrowing on credit cards totalled £6,982mn in January, some 15% less than in December. With repayments of a similar size, the seasonally adjusted increase in net lending was just £237mn, continuing the picture of subdued card borrowing.
* New lending on personal loans and overdrafts, at £2,688mn, picked up from the seasonally low December figure. After seasonal adjustment, the rise in net lending was £629mn, above the average monthly increase of +£0.5bn over the previous six months.
