The Bank of England recently released figures regarding remortgage lending for the month of October.  In a year on year comparison, lending increased by almost 28%.  Including all major UK lenders, remortgage lending totaled 3.7 billion during the month, which is an increase from 2.9 billion pounds during the previous month.  The year on year increase provided a breath of fresh air, but economists quickly reminded us to not get excited about a possible turnaround in the struggling UK housing market. 

Total gross lending during the month of October was 10 billion pounds, a small decrease from the slightly more than 10 billion pounds which were lent in the month of September.

Lending, specifically for home purchase changed practically none from one month to the next, totaling 5.5 billion pounds in the month of October.

And gross lending secured on dwellings amounted to 12 billion pounds in October, which was slightly less than the September total of 12.2 billion pounds.  Repayments for the month remained consistent to the month of September at 11billion pounds.

Samuel Tombs, of Capital Economics echoes the comments from others in housing.  He said: “The number of mortgage approvals for new house purchase rose from approximately 51,200 in September to 52,700, but this just reversed September’s drop.

“Rapid falls in employment and real earnings, as well as deteriorating conditions in wholesale funding markets, suggest that approvals are unlikely to keep rising.”

The base rate, or the major catalyst for change in across the board interest rates, is still at the record level of 0.5%.