Re-mortgage lending highest since July 2008

Monthly gross re-mortgage lending increased by £471m in July to £4.2bn marking a 12.7% rise on June’s lending and the highest July figure since 2008, figures from LMS show.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that total gross mortgage lending rose 11.9% in July to £16.6bn from £14.8bn in June; as a result re-mortgages now represent a quarter of the whole market.

Andy Knee, chief executive of LMS, said: “Following subdued re-mortgage activity in June this month’s figures show a significant boost with both gross re-mortgage lending and the number of re-mortgages both increasing significantly.

“In fact the total re-mortgage lending figure marks the most successful July we have seen since 2008.”

LMS estimated that the total number of re-mortgage loans in July increased by 6.7% to 28,590 compared with 26,800 in June. This figure is also up 13.9% on this time last year.

The average re-mortgage loan amount has fallen by 2.4% over the past month and now stands at £145,887 but still remains 11% higher than this time last year.

Knee said: “The average amount of equity being released has fallen this month from its 13-month high in June but due to the increase in the number of customers the total amount of equity being released by re-mortgaging is continuing to grow month-by-month.”

Peter Lawrence at Lawrence Rand said: “There are some attractive re-mortgage deals to be had at the moment and our advisers are helping people obtains loans for  a variety of purposes including home improvements and further property investment such as buy to let.”