Mortgages and first time buyer numbers up, despite Mortgage Market Review (MMR)

Figures suggest that the mortgage market has rebounded after MMR, demonstrating that the new rules may slow mortgage giving but have not stopped it.

There were 66,279 house purchase approvals in July, with a 52 per cent increase in high loan-to-value lending to 11,533 approvals.

The data, from e.surv, shows last month to be the strongest July for house purchase lending since 2007, when there were 112,291.

Monthly mortgage approvals were 6.9 per cent higher, compared to 62,007 in May – the first full month in which lenders had to be fully compliant with the new MMR regulations.

The 11,533 high-LTV mortgages for borrowers with a deposit worth 15 per cent or less of the total value of their property, accounted for one in five approvals in July, compared to one in nine a year earlier.

The overall average LTV was 62.6 per cent compared to 60.6 per cent a year ago.

But the available stock of cheap housing is decreasing. There were 13,256 approvals on properties worth £125,000 or less in July 2014, 13 per cent fewer than a year before.

But e.surv says the increased willingness among banks to lend to high LTV borrowers has ensured the first-time buyer market has stayed strong.

Now the firm says analysts await the Bank of England Financial Policy Committee’s latest restrictions. From October 1, banks must limit lending to buyers at income ratios of 4.5 or above to 15 per cent of the total number of mortgage loans.