House purchase mortgages fall by a third

However, net mortgage lending from the banking sector strengthened in February as the banks saw market share increase on the back of strong remortgaging activity. The seasonally adjusted amount of approved loans for house purchase was £7bn in February, compared with a total of £18.8bn. Mortgage for purchase are down 30.1% compared with the same period last year, while overall mortgage lending has fallen 7.8%, showing a major shift to remortgaging. David Dooks, statistics director at the BBA, comments: “In an environment of tightening lending criteria, re-mortgaging, either to fix, re-fix...