Mortgage lending has cooled off as the approach of the election nears. As usual and totally expected, borrowers are sitting on the fence waiting to see the outcome before committing to a new deal. There is an upswing expected to occur in mortgage demand after the election results.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed in their recent data that house purchase mortgages declined by 12.8% on year to year comparisons from £7.8 billion in February 2014 to £6.8 billion recorded for February 2015. The volume level for February fell by 16% to 40,600.

Remortgage demand has been sluggish for several months. The CML data revealed that the trend has continued with homeowners seeking new deals by 11% less this February than last. The remortgage value in a year to year comparison fell from £3.7 billion to £3.3 billion while volume declined from 24,900 in February 2014 to only 21,500 for February 2015.

The only area of mortgage lending to see an increase was buy-to-let lending with a push of 16% in a year to year comparison to £2.2 billion. Landlords received 15,900 loan advances which was an increase of 11% in a year to year comparison of this past February to February 2014.

Paul Smee, CML director general said, “As with January, seasonal factors have played their part in dampening house purchase lending activity in February.

“This typical seasonal trend may also be exacerbated by uncertainty ahead of the general election, but we still expect to see an upturn in the spring and summer months.

“Buy-to-let, in contrast, has shown year-on-year lending increases, due almost completely to remortgaging, which is typically strong in the buy-to-let market.”