Monday 30 June 2008

Bad? It is terrible.

Go on, admit it, who thought it was going to be this bad, this quickly?

Today, the Bank of England announced the latest mortgage approvals data for May. Somehow, "worse that expected" doesn't really capture it. Approvals are down 64 percent relative to May 2007 and 28 percent compared to April.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What astonishes about this figure is that it is the lowest since records began in 1993 - when, after the property market had been plummeting for four years, the first real glimmers of some recovery in the happened in the February, and banks and building societies were all year desperately tempting first-time buyers back into the market with very attractive low-start rates. A&L were offering FTB's 4.99% AER for a year...

There is much, much worse to come...

B. in C.

Anonymous said...

Bad? Surely a matter of which side of the renter-owner frontline you stand on.

I'm absolutely delighted.

Nick

Alice Cook said...

Ooooh, you are cruel Nick!

Alice

Anonymous said...

I'm delighted too... I just hope that mortgage lenders haven't overlooked the risk of default on these 42,000 reckless loans.

I wonder what proportion are BTL and deemed 'safe' because the BTL property is valued at only 10% of the main residence? LTV can be quite deceptive and I have a feeling that this is all that lenders are considering.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't sell but I had to move, so now I rent out and pay rent.

I make £150 a month profit on the difference.

Brilliant!

Funny old world.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, Are you sure you make £150 - have you considered your tax position?

;)

Anonymous said...

the most depressing data so far....

powerman said...

I'm a home owner. I don't want the government to do anything silly trying to prop up an asset bubble, even if it's one I might (short sightedly) benefit from.

People in this country are already in stupid levels of debt. They need a period of higher interest rates and lower taxes to put their personal finances right.

Anonymous said...

asteve

mmm, true, I'm also responsible for upkeep.