Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, commented:
“The housing market is being lifted by a rising tide of mortgage lending. House purchase lending is 30% higher than last July, which reflects the drastic improvement in the availability of high LTV mortgages over the past year. The mortgage market is now much more accessible to first-time buyers, which has triggered a ripple of activity all the way up the housing ladder. The choice of mortgages available to borrowers is at its highest since the financial crisis, which has opened up the market to a much wider spectrum of people. But there are concerns the improvement is artificial and unsustainable in the long-term.
"Help to Buy and Funding for Lending have given the market a shot of adrenalin, which has disguised underlying problems like a chronic lack of house building, but they can’t continue indefinitely. A critical shortfall in house building threatens to inflate a house price bubble, which is why the government must make building homes a priority. And consumer finances are still sweltering under the heat of high inflation and weak wage growth, which makes high LTV lending a riskier proposition for borrowers and lenders alike.”
Paul Hunt, managing director of Phoebus Software said:
“It’s good to see signs pointing to the robust nature of the property market thanks to the improvement in mortgage lending. Figures are positive for the lending picture as a whole with house purchase lending up 30% compared to a year ago, signalling there has been significant progress in the availability of high LTV mortgages in the past twelve months.
"Conditions have eased for first time buyers, and there’s a range of attractive mortgage deals to choose from. Lenders have been pivotal in boosting the mortgage market, and clearly they are more willing to lend to high LTV borrowers, which has led to a substantial rise in first-time buyer activity. Schemes such as Help to Buy and Funding for Lending have provided solid foundations for mortgage market growth. The Government is making steady progress in boosting first time buyer activity, which is crucial if mortgage lending targets are to be met in order to move the market forward.”
