Lettings share of Loans

Buy to let accounted for a large proportion of lending last month.

Although the number and value of mortgages for homebuyers and those remortgaging fell in July buy to let loans rose to £7.8bn totalling 23% of lending. There were 94,000 mortgages for residential purchases and 92,000 for remortgages totalling over £26bn.

First time buyer loans fell by 7% to 32,400 between June and July and affordability for this sector of the market is getting worse. The average income multiple is now up to 3.39 and an average of 19.7% of income was used for mortgage repayments for first time buyers.

79% of mortgages for residential and remortgages went to fixed rates products proving they are still as popular as ever.

A slowing of the house market seems as it is here and affordability is an even greater problem which is unlikely to change overnight.

It would appear that more rate rises are unlikely for the time being.