U.K Loan Approvals For House Purchases Drop In April - BBA

5/29/2007 7:26:51 AM
In the United Kingdom, loan approvals for house purchases fell to 64,815 in April, the British Bankers' Association said Tuesday. Economists expected a number of 56,000. In March, mortgage approvals totaled 75,098. A year ago, number of loan approvals totaled 64,183. On a yearly basis, number of house purchase approvals moved up 1% and value climbed 10%. Approvals for equity withdrawals fell 1% by number, while the value improved 8%. The average loan approved for house purchase rose around 9% annually to GBP152,800.
Mortgage approvals for all purposes improved 1% on year to 170,000, with an aggregate value of GBP19.1 billion. Gross mortgage lending gained 12% on year to GBP17.3 billion on account of annual increase in house prices and strong re-mortgaging activity.
The report said that credit card spending showed an increase of 2.5% to GBP6,767 million. The underlying net lending fell seasonally adjusted GBP143 million.
David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said, "The latest three months have seen net mortgage lending stabilize, with rises (albeit still around £5bn a month) below the average of the previous six months. The picture from approvals points to mortgage demand weakening further as the year progresses and the cumulative effect of higher interest rates bites harder.”

Source:
http://www.rttnews.com/forex/economicnews.asp