House purchase lending plummets 26%: CML

The body found 28,500 house purchase loans were advanced in January, down 29% on December. By value the fall was 13%. Compared to January 2010 the numbers are down 12%, a substantial fall given that the beginning of last year saw artificially low lending after the rush to buy before the stamp duty holiday ended in 2009. The CML said the fall in lending was far greater than the expected seasonal decline between December and January. It blamed a mixture of factors including household budgets coming under pressure from government cuts, rising inflation and tax measures, such as the in...