The number of new mortgages approved in the UK fell from 54,000 in September to 44,100 in October. This is a fall of 37 per cent slump on October last year. This reflects the weakness in the housing market and could be a prelude to falling house prices.
The decline in the number of mortgage approvals is blamed on:
- Government’s controversial home buyers package, which makes it more bureaucratic to put your house on the market
- A stagnating market – less houses are being put on the market
- Declining confidence following the problems of Northern Rock.
- Global credit crunch leading to less mortgages being made available e.g. Kensington Mortgages withdrawing sub prime mortgages
- Recent interest rate rises having an increasing effect on reducing consumer spending
- Will UK House Prices fall? - have your say
mortgage approvals are down because houses are overvalued and the market is beginning to adjust to that reality. Everything else (HIPs etc) is just noise.
Alice
http://ukhousebubble.blogspot.com