Net mortgage borrowing in April came to £3.3bn, show new figures from the Bank of England, down from the record £11.5bn seen in March.
This, the BoE says that “despite weaker net lending, both gross lending and repayments remain above levels seen since the start of 2020. The recent variability is likely to reflect the reduction in the stamp duty tax.”
Meanwhile, the number of mortgage approvals in April came to 86,900 at a value of £20.2bn, which compares to 83,400 at a value of £18.6bn in March.
The total number of remortgage approvals in April amounted to 33,100 at a value of £6.4bn, the BoE data adds, down slightly from the 34,500 seen in March at a value of £6.6bn.
SPF Private Clients chief executive Mark Harris says: “It was always going to be a challenge to beat March’s stellar performance and sure enough, lending fell back in April.
“The numbers are likely to have been skewed by the original deadline for the stamp duty holiday with many buyers rushing to complete before the end of March to take advantage. Now that it has been extended, activity has settled down a little, with gross lending and repayments above levels seen since the start of 2020.
“With a number of lenders launching sub-1 per cent products, there is clearly an appetite to lend and cash available to do so. Cheap borrowing rates look set to be with us for a while at least and will continue to support demand for property purchases.”
And Phoebus Software sales and marketing director Richard Pike comments: “House prices are at their highest in seven years, but as demand increases supply is, as always, the problem.
“Housebuilders are desperately trying to play catch-up, following the lockdown restrictions, to meet the government’s targets for new home development.
“As ever the fluctuations in the housing market make it difficult to predict what will happen next, but it’s reasonable to expect things to continue in their current vein at least until the end of June. Then we will see how much the stamp duty holiday has driven current activity.”
