According to the latest data from the British Bankers’ Association, gross mortgage borrowing of £9.3bn in August was higher than in July and above the average of £8.4bn over the previous six months.
Higher capital repayment (including homeowners moving between lenders) continues to generate the contractions in borrowing stocks seen over the past year and explains the subdued picture of net borrowing.
The numbers of approvals for house purchase and remortgaging both rose in August, with house purchase the highest since 2009 and remortgaging the highest since 2011. Assistance schemes for mortgage borrowing are also helping more first-time buyers and housing chains generally as housing market activity continues to increase. Approvals in August for borrowing other than house purchase or re-mortgaging are in line with those seen during rest of the year.
BBA statistics director, David Dooks said:
“These figures suggest that consumer confidence is growing. For the first time in four years, annual growth in household borrowing on credit cards and personal loans has turned positive and mortgages approved for house purchase are also at their highest level since 2009.
“Business borrowing, influenced by large corporates using alternative market funding, again contracted, but within that, SME borrowing is stable.”
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