Sharp fall in UK mortgage lending

Sharp fall in UK mortgage lending There was a sharp slowdown in mortgage lending in the UK last month, says the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
Gross lending dipped by 12% from August to September, to £30bn.
Although lending was still higher than in September last year, the drop from month to month was larger than is usually seen at this time of year.
The CML said it was another sign that the housing market was responding to the five increases in interest rates since the summer of 2006.
"We have been expecting a slowdown in monthly lending levels in line with interest rate rises," said the CML's director general Michael Coogan.
"In the coming months, we expect to see monthly lending levels dip below their 2006 levels for the first time this year as rate effects are exacerbated by the recent liquidity problems in the mortgage market," he added.
Slowdown
The CML said that mortgage lending usually dips by just 5% between August and September.
However, September was the third month in a row that mortgage lending has dropped.
The CML's figures are very much in line with those from other market commentators such as individual lenders and estate agents.
Their regular surveys have all shown a slowdown in prices, sales or new mortgage approvals over the past few months.
Northern Rock
The CML said its figures pre-dated any effect there might have been from the crisis at the Northern Rock.
However, in separate data released on Thursday, the UK's building societies revealed that they had received a big influx of savings last month, probably due to the run on the Northern Rock.
The Building Societies Association (BSA) said its members had seen a record paid £2.82bn into their accounts, nearly three times the amount deposited in September last year and a billion pounds more than the previously monthly record.
"It is likely that a significant proportion of the inflow is due to withdrawals from Northern Rock bank being re-deposited in building societies," said Adrian Coles of the BSA.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/7050277.stmPublished: 2007/10/18 09:54:21 GMT© BBC MMVII

Sharp rise in stamp duty burden

Sharp rise in stamp duty burden A quarter of the country's entire residential stamp-duty burden is shouldered by just 25 local authority areas, the Halifax bank has found.
The 2006/7 tax year figures showed all of the 10 authorities which generated more than £50m were in London or on the capital's edge.
The Halifax said more than one in seven councils saw at least a 50% rise in the duty paid by homebuyers in their area.
Sales above the £250,000 duty threshold had risen sharply, it added.
The authorities that generated the most stamp-duty of all were Kensington and Chelsea at £235 million, followed by Westminster, £193 million, and Wandsworth, £122 million.
'Steep increases'
The only areas outside the south-east which were in the stamp-duty top 25 were Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol and Birmingham.
Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said: "There were some very steep increases in residential stamp duty revenue at a local level in the last financial year.
"A sharp rise in the number of property sales above the 3% stamp duty threshold of £250,000 has been a key factor behind this dramatic increase."
The total stamp duty revenue from residential property sales in the UK rose by 40% in 2006/07 to a record £6.4bn, the Halifax said. During the past five years, annual residential stamp duty revenue has more than doubled.
Properties costing more than £250,000 pay 3% stamp duty, and homes above £500,000 pay 4%.
The Halifax estimates that 25% of properties in the UK - 5.4 million - are now valued above the £250,000 stamp duty threshold.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/7064984.stmPublished: 2007/10/27 00:23:48 GMT© BBC MMVII

House prices 'now slowing down'

House prices 'now slowing down' Further evidence has been published that house prices are slowing down in England and Wales.
The Land Registry said that the annual inflation rate for residential properties fell in September to 8.7%, down from 9.4% in August.
The figures back up other recent surveys, such as those from lenders, surveyors and the Department of Communities and Local Government.
The Land Registry said the fall in September was a "noticeable dip".
It now seems clear from all available evidence that the housing market is slowing down, say analysts, with prices cooling off, while both house sales and new mortgage approvals are dropping.
Between April and July, the average number of property sales was 102,367 per month, down from an average of 109,316 in the same period last year.
London
If it were not for the current strength of the market in London, house price inflation would be even lower, the figures suggest.
Prices in England and Wales rose by 0.4% in September, taking the cost of the average house to £183,896.
But prices in London - now averaging £354,272 - are still rising much faster than in the rest of the country.
Last month, they went up by a further 1.3%, which trimmed the annual inflation rate for the capital very slightly to 16.5%.
"The evidence of the divergent performance between regions persists," said the Registry.
"The September data shows that for the sixth consecutive month, the rate of monthly increase for London house prices remains clearly greater than that of England and Wales as a whole," it added.
With average prices rising, the number of properties being sold in the cheaper price bands in England and Wales has been shrinking.
In July, the last month for which data is available, the number of homes sold for between £100,001 and £150,000 - the most common price band - fell by 18%.
In London, it will soon be impossible to buy anything for less than £100,000.
In July, just 47 properties were sold for less than that sum.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/7063572.stmPublished: 2007/10/26 10:52:58 GMT© BBC MMVII