Mortgage approvals fell in September to the lowest amount in four months.
The number of bank-approved mortgages dropped from 46,567 in August to 44,489 in September. This number is up 14% on the previous year however, and mortgage borrowing is up from the same period last year too. Gross mortgage borrowing in August was 12.1 billion, which is 17% higher than August 2014.
The Cause
The slowdown in mortgage borrowing for September has been attributed to the lack of homes available on the market. The drop could also be due to the fact that increases in interest rates no longer look likely to happen any time soon. In previous months, house buyers may have been looking to act quickly before interest rates rose, as they were expected to. Now this doesn’t appear to be the case buyers may feel less pressure to take advantage of low interest.
More information on the fluctuation in mortgage borrowing can be found here.
