BoE stats reveal housing market remains remarkably robust

Jonathan Sealey, CEO at specialist lender Hope Capital, said: “It is clearly a huge drop from £11.5bn in mortgage borrowing in March to £3.3bn in April, but that statistic alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

“As soon as the Chancellor announced the extension of the stamp duty holiday deadline to the end of June, as an industry we were anticipating a roller coaster pattern to emerge for 2021. And so this fall is likely to be followed by a steady rise hitting a second peak at the end of this month.

“What should come as some reassurance is that mortgage approvals continued to rise in April, which demonstrates an ongoing level of demand from house-buyers.

“Certainly, as a specialist lender Hope Capital has experienced a busy first half to the year which is also a reflection that people are looking for a range of opportunities, shaped by their experience of the last 18 months.

“People want more out of their home lives and investments now and are increasingly looking to the specialist lending sector to help deliver on those aspirations.”

Published: 02 June 2021