Figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) last week interestingly reveals that lending transactions for both remortgaging and the buy-to-let sector are higher than they were back in 2014, and that many are taking the opportunity to lock in to record low rates.
Nigel Glossop, Managing Director of Alexander James Mortgage Services, comments on this:
“The data released by the CML reports on July lending, so provides an accurate picture of the first full month of lending transactions post-referendum, and that borrowing by those moving home, first-time buyers and landlords was lower than the previous month, with only remortgaging figures up on June.
There could be a mix of reasons for these figures; firstly, July is traditionally a quieter month as it is peak holiday season, so we would expect a drop of some sort on the month on month figures. In terms of the year on year figures, this could be a combination of a quieter market immediately following the referendum, and also the fact that July in 2015 was an exceptionally busy year due to pent up demand following the General Election, which would inevitably skew the year on year comparison.
The closest ‘benchmark’ in terms of year on year figures would be 2014 which was considered a normal market, and therefore comparing those figures we can see that lending transactions for both remortgaging and the buy-to-let sector are higher in 2016 than they were for the same period in 2014. Given the political and economic uncertainty in the lead up to the referendum, this might indicate that actually, the market was relatively stable in July after all.
What we can see is that more consumers are taking the opportunity to lock into record low rates by remortgaging and certainly, with many lenders repricing downwards and introducing new products and more flexible lending criteria in the last couple of months, this is a trend that we would expect to see continue and borne out by the August CML data which will be available in October.”
Get in touch
Nigel Glossop is from Alexander James Mortgage Services – for further information, call 0333 6000 008, email enquiries@ajms.co.uk or visit www.ajms.co.uk.
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