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03rd May 2011

Mortgage market 'unlikely to fall'

Latest figures on mortgage lending will be welcomed by landlords with buy-to-let properties as the statistics suggest loan approvals are broadly stable.

Recent data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed that gross mortgage lending across the UK was £11.3 billion in March.

This is a 21 per cent rise from total lending in the previous month, when the figure stood at £9.3 billion, and just a two per cent decline on the same period in 2010.

Commenting on the findings, a mortgage industry expert has noted that the market is not likely to fall any further.

Ray Boulger of independent mortgage advisory firm John Charcol said that the CML data "is really just emphasising that activity in the mortgage market is ticking along at similar levels to what we have seen".

"We are not seeing any significant increases in activity, but equally we seem to have hit a nadir in so far as it is not falling any further. I would expect it to be bumping along at these sorts of levels for the next few months," he added.

Mr Boulger also said that there has been an increase in mortgage approvals for purchasing purposes compared to applications made for remortgaging.

"In January and February, for example, 45 per cent of our business was purchases, in March that moved up to just under 54 per cent," he revealed.

The expert warned that although there are seasonal variations in the mortgage market, the fact that total lending has increased by more than a fifth is good news for buyers.