Mortgage lending rose by £4.3 billion

Mortgage lending rose by £4.3 billion in July – the same as in June, according to the British Bankers Association (BBA).

And the number of monthly mortgage approvals levelled off after a drop of two-thirds in the number of mortgage approvals since the start of the year.

The BBA said it was too early to tell if the market will start to recover because overall activity remains very low.

BBA statistics director David Dooks, said: "The pressures on household budgets are reflected in the relatively weak rise in individuals'' deposits and, with consumer borrowing growing only slowly it seems that consumers are acting prudently."


Mortgage approvals remain 65 per cent lower when compared with last year''s figures, with remortgaging accounting for around half of all mortgage deals despite a drop of three per cent when compared with June of this year.

According to Oliver Gilmartin, senior economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the mortgage market is unlikely to recover as banks maintain the current trend for tight lending criteria.

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