Home loan approvals 'to dip in August'

The CML estimates gross mortgage lending totalled £12.6bn in August, less than the revised total of £14.5bn in July. But the trade body for banks and building societies says that the decline was to be expected due to seasonal factors and that lending levels had actually stabilised during the summer. In July, CML data showed it was the first month since the boom in the housing market started to fizzle out more than two years ago that the number and value of new mortgage loans grew. CML economist Paul Samter says that with signs of a recovery in wholesale funding markets, there are h...