(Alliance News) - UK mortgage lending rose to its highest level in 13 years as the mortgage market continued to show more signs of recovery in August, figures from the Bank of England showed on Tuesday.
Mortgage approvals for house purchase increased sharply to 84,700 in August and was the highest since October 2007. The reading beat market forecasts cited by FXStreet of 71,000. July's mortgage approvals were 66,300.
"The surge in house purchase mortgage approvals to their highest level since October 2007 was driven by the release of pent-up demand following the shutdown of the housing market in the second quarter and the impetus to complete purchases while the threshold for stamp duty has been raised temporarily to GBP500K, from GBP125K. In the first eight months of this year, approvals still are 20% below 2019's equivalent figure, suggesting that they likely will remain well above trend for at least another couple of months," said analysts at Pantheon Economics.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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