x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.
Written by rosalind renshaw

Early signs are that the housing mortgage market is continuing to weaken more sharply than had been widely predicted.

This is despite today's Halifax house price survey, showing that prices rebounded by 0.8% in January  making good the 0.7% drop over the previous three months.

Purchase approvals fell 6.2% in January compared with the month before – itself a weak month.

The new data is based on the valuations activity of a national firm of chartered surveyors, e.surv, the largest distributor and manager of valuation instructions in the UK and which works for over 25 lenders.

The firm says there was a marked drop in demand, and that the housing market stalled in January.

It puts the total number of mortgage approvals at 39,905 which is 17.4% down on last January.

The firm also says that purchase volumes fell by a similar amount across all price bands, up to £750,000. Above this level, volumes fell faster, although it points out that sales volumes in the most expensive properties have held up better than the overall market.

Richard Sexton, business development director at e-surv, said: “The weather has been shouldering the blame for everything later. But this has merely exacerbated the underlying weakening trend in the housing market.”

He added that lenders had pulled back from the market in both December and January.

But he said: “Initial signs are that February will show some improvement.”

David Brown, commercial director of LSL Property Services, parent company of Reeds Rains and Your Move, said of the figures: “They unsurprisingly paint a fairly gloomy picture, given the impact of the weather.

“It’s clear that many lenders are still focusing on repayments to the Government rather than on higher LTV new lending to first-time buyers.

“As depressed levels of lending continue to hamper the number of first-time buyers able to get on to the property ladder, the private rental sector will play an increasingly pivotal role in the housing market.”

Halifax said of its latest figures for January that house prices would continue to fluctuate all this year. It said January's house price bounce was due to fewer properties coming to the market.

Comments

MovePal MovePal MovePal