Housepresso 09 May 21

Published 9th of May, 2021

All you need to know about the housing market this week in one quick hit

Is Record-breaking mortgage lending good for us?

The Bank of England reported this week that net mortgage lending in March 2021 was £11.8bn, the highest it has been since records began in April 1993. The previous peak was £10.4bn in October 2006 in the lead up to the Global Financial Crisis. But can debt be a good thing?

The Bank of England released its mortgage approval number for March 2021 this week. Mortgage approvals in March were 82,735. This was 5% lower than February 2021, but an increase of 45% compared to March 2020

Mortgage rates - ticking down

The Bank of England also released data on the mortgage rates for new business this week, the general trend was a reduction in the mortgage rate charged.

Two year 75% LTV fixed rate 1.56% down 3.7%

Two year 90% LTV fixed rate 3.35% down 4.3%

Two year 95% LTV fixed rate 4.14% unchanged

Barratt Developments - building more

Barratt Developments, the FTSE 100 housebuilder issued a trading update this week. The company said that strong performance has delivered an increase in expected full-year sales to between 16,000 and 16,250 homes. Forward sales for FY2021 £3,700m (FY2020 £2,800m; FY2019: £3,400m) and it has achieved a 5 star rating from customers for a 12^th successive year.

First Time Buyers - caught out by COVID-19

Specialist mortgage lender Aldermore Bank research shows that the pandemic has made it harder for first time buyers to get on the housing ladder mortgage.

Only one in five (19%) were able to get a mortgage on the first attempt, compared to almost half (48%) before the Covid-19 pandemic

Two fifths (38%) were rejected for a mortgage once, whereas 43% were rejected more than once

The most common reasons for rejection were poor credit history (41%) and not having a large enough deposit (39%)