The number of mortgages granted to first-time buyers has dropped for a second successive month according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
There were 26,800 first-time buyer loans in September - the latest data available - which was three per cent down on August's figure although still 16 per cent up on September 2013. By value, there was £4 billion advanced to first-time buyers in September, slightly down on August but a quarter higher than September last year.
Lending to home movers also weakened month-on-month for the second month in a row.
In September, the number of loans advanced to movers was 31,700, a 10 per cent fall on the previous month but up 11 per cent on September last year.
Remortgage lending activity saw an increase month-on-month in September, with the number of remortgage loans totalling 28,300. This was 20 per cent up on August this year but 12 per cent down on September 2013.
There were 18,100 buy-to-let loans in September, representing lending of £2.5 billion. Following the August low of 15,700 loans worth £2.2 billion, this returned buy-to-let lending to levels very similar to July - compared to September 2013 the figures are up 24 per cent by volume and 32 per cent by value.
Comments
Is the answer to give mortgages to anyone willing to fog a mirror, it seemed to work in 2005-2007
It's not as simple as building more houses Rob Davies. First time buyers won't make a significant return to the market until the culture of greed that the Thatcher government left us with disapears, and property generally becomes affordable.
A typical 'first time buyer' property should be no more than 3 times the average wage in an area to be affordable, where I am, that's probably around 60,000, but the bottom of the market here is well over twice that. Now do you see the problem Rob
Of course, where we are now, the rich are still getting richer, so hopefully there will still be investment buyers to keep the market going, but there is only a limited suppy of those. without first time buyers there is no market!
Not disagreeing with Rob's comments, but "if most people will have to continue renting" then who are we supposed to be selling houses to
Is this really much of a surprise The introduction of MMR has made it even more difficult to get a mortgage, Help to Buy seems to have gone on the backburner recently, and young people are finding it increasingly difficult to get a foot on the ladder because of house prices. The number of first-time buyers will continue to go down until something is done to build more affordable housing across the country. Until then, most people will have to continue renting.