Gross mortgage lending continues to grow in April

Gross mortgage lending was an estimated £16.6 billion in April, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. This is 8% higher than March’s gross lending total and 36% higher than April last year (£12.2 billion) and the highest total for an April since 2008 (£25.7 billion).

Commenting on market conditions in this month’s Market Commentary, CML chief economist Bob Pannell observes: “The implementation of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) from late April has made it a little harder to interpret recent data. As we have pointed out previously, there may be some disruption to the monthly pattern of activity while MMR procedures bed down.
 
“The Bank of England has signalled that macro-prudential measures to limit the housing market upturn are likely in the near future, and possibly in the very near future.
 
“Forthcoming measures will, in our estimation, be careful, calibrated, and proportionate, and designed to reinforce prudent affordability checks, rather than to apply the brakes to the housing market in a more dramatic fashion.”