While mortgage lending in the UK is not exactly of Irish interest, it is worth looking at to see the challenges that our nearest neighbours face and in some ways to see if their lending data is reflective of our own.
Today the Financial Services Authority (FSA) today published its latest Mortgage Lending Data for the United Kingdom covering the period Q3 2012.
Key statistics for Q3 2012 are as follows:
·The total value of outstanding loans at the end of Q3 was £1,227bn, an increase of 0.3% on last quarter.
·New advances in the quarter amounted to £40bn, a 7% increase on Q2 but 9% below Q3 last year.
·The overall average interest rate on new advances increased from 3.78% last quarter to 3.89% in Q3. There was an increase in the rates for both variable rate lending and for fixed rate lending.
·New commitments totalled £36bn in the quarter, down 10% from last quarter and 14% lower than in the same quarter of last year.
·Lending for house purchase accounted for the highest proportion of new advances seen …