The British Bankers’ Association (BBA)reports that the number of mortgage approvals increased around 4% on a monthly and yearly basis in July to 74,590, as gross mortgage lending remained flat for a third consecutive month at £7.6bn.

Its figures, represent two-thirds of UK mortgage lending by the main high street banking groups, they show that gross mortgage lending was down 8% year-on-year from £8.3bn in July 2010.
Annual net mortgage lending grew 1.7% in July to £0.9bn up from £0.5bn in June, ahead of the increase of 0.7% for the whole mortgage market, the BBA said. Yet, net mortgage lending was down from £1.3bn in July 2010.

While house purchase and re-mortgage approvals remained weak in July, both showed growth on a monthly and yearly basis, with total approvals up around 4% on June and July 2010.
House purchase approvals reached a 12-month high of 33,417, up from 32,123 in June and modestly up on July 2010. The average value of approvals was 2% higher than July last year at £151,500.
Re-mortgage approvals in July rose 14% on last year to 26,043 and up from 24,311 in June, which could be a result of the growth in the buy-to-let sector, the BBA said.

Meanwhile, approvals for any equity withdrawal remained flat, the BBA reported, with homeowners using the rise in value of their homes as security for borrowing.

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