Residential Remortgaging market sees strongest July in a decade

UKF Mortgage Trends Update 12 September 2018 ?UK Finance's Mortgage Trends Update for July 2018 reveals:

There were 46,900 new homeowner remortgages completed in the month, some 23.1 per cent more than in the same month a year earlier. The £8.7bn of remortgaging in the month was 26.1 per cent more year-on-year.
There were 32,600 new homemover mortgages completed in the month, some 3.8 per cent fewer than in the same month a year earlier. The £7.3bn of new lending in the month was the same year-on-year. The average homemover is 39 and has a gross household income of £57,000.
There were 31,400 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in the month, some 1 per cent more than in the same month a year earlier. The £5.4bn of new lending in the month was 5.9 per cent more year-on-year. The average first-time buyer is 30 and has a gross household income of £42,000.
There were 5,500 new buy-to-let home purchase mortgages completed in the month, some 14.1 per cent fewer than in the same month a year earlier. By value this was £0.8bn of lending in the month, 11.1 per cent down year-on-year.
There were 14,700 new buy-to-let remortgages completed in the month, some 7.3 per cent more than in the same month a year earlier. By value this was £2.4bn of lending in the month, 9.1 per cent more year-on-year.

Commenting on the data, Jackie Bennett, Director of Mortgages at UK Finance said:

The residential remortgaging market saw its strongest July in over a decade, as homeowners pre-empted the latest Bank of England rate rise by locking into attractive fixed-rate deals.

There was also considerable growth in remortgaging in the buy-to-let sector, showing that while recent tax and regulatory changes are impacting on new purchases, many existing landlords remain in the market.

The number of first-time buyers has returned to modest year-on-year growth. However, affordability remains a challenge for many prospective borrowers, underlining the importance of clarity over the future of schemes such as Help to Buy.

Area of expertise:

Mortgages

Notes to editor

<ol><li>UK Finance is a trade association formed on 1 July 2017 to represent the finance and banking industry operating in the UK. It represents around 250 firms in the UK providing credit, banking, markets and payment-related services. The new organisation brings together most of the activities previously carried out by the Asset Based Finance Association, the British Bankers? Association, the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Financial Fraud Action UK, Payments UK and the UK Cards Association.</li>
<li>The data shown is grossed up from the sample of lenders reporting to reflect total market size, based on total market volumes of Mortgage Product volumes of Mortgage Product Sales Data published by the FCA, so our historical figures are subject to revision as and when the FCA makes revisions to the market totals. The average figures shown are medians, as they tend to better represent the position of the typical borrower. Affordability measures are based on median averages of calculations for individual transactions. Capital & interest payment calculations only include mortgages taken out on a full capital and interest repayment basis and are calculated based on the reported repayment term, interest rate, loan amount and income for each transaction.</li>
<li>Income metrics are presented on a gross household basis, as the sum of all income sources for all borrowers included in the affordability assessment.</li>
</ol>

Tags:

Affordable housing Buy to let First-time buyers Housing market Statistics