RICS: Bank of England March mortgage approval data

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist said: "Further evidence that activity in the housing market is continuing to pick-up, albeit from abysmally low levels, was provided today by the latest Bank of England mortgage approvals data.

"Approvals rose to 39,000 in March which compares with a low of just 27,000 in November. This level of transactions is, however, still way below what would normally be expected in a recession.

"A key issue remains accessibility to the market for first time buyers who are continuing to find the bulk of mortgages on offer only providing maximum loan to values of around 75%. Despite some recent initiatives from HSBC and one or two other lenders, this is unlikely to change in the near term. The availability of finance may nevertheless improve if the government's recently announced scheme to guarantee new issuance of asset backed securities finds favour with investors.

"Even if, as we expect, activity levels continue to rise, the number of mortgage approvals is unlikely to climb above 60,000 by the year end which will still leave them at only around half the level of the recent high water mark."