Property finance experts are predicting that the value of home loans advanced in 2015 will rise 9% to £222bn despite the value of mortgages advanced in January slumping to a 21-month low of £14.3bn.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, that figure is 11% lower than the £16.1bn worth of home loans that were advanced in January 2014, and 14% lower than the £16.6bn borrowed in December.
But the CML says January is typically a slow month for the market and its figures are not seasonally adjusted.
It adds that a mortgage price war that has seen the rates charged for two-year fixed rate loans drop to 1.2%, the overhaul of stamp duty that will benefit most homeowners buying for less than £937,000 and house price growth spreading across the country will all help the property market.
CML chief economist Bob Pannell says: “Although seasonal factors will continue to weigh on activity levels for a while longer, we expect the underlying picture to pick up over the coming months.”
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