Mortgage approvals hit 14-month low

British banks and building societies granted the fewest new mortgages for house purchase in more than a year in September. Bank of England (BoE) data shows that mortgage approvals fell to 72,645 in September from 74,214 the month before, the lowest since July 2020. The decline has been attributed in part to the winding down of the stamp duty holiday, with the tax break rolled out to support the market amid the pandemic withdrawn at the end of September. Despite a dip in the number of approvals, net mortgage lending for transactions that completed in September surged to £9.524bn. This was the highest total since June – the last month before the stamp duty holiday started to taper. Approvals for re-mortgaging rose slightly to 41,500 in September to the highest levels since March 2020.

Daily Mail (29/10/2021)   Evening Standard (29/10/2021)   Financial Times (29/10/2021)   Reuters (29/10/2021)