This is almost identical to January’s gross lending total of £10.65 billion and 14% higher than February last year (£9.4 billion).
In today’s CML market commentary, CML chief economist Bob Pannell comments:
“Although a seasonal decline is expected over the winter months, our forward estimates suggest that February was the seventh month in a row of higher year-on-year lending. This indicates that lending for house purchase remains brisk in advance of the ending of the Stamp Duty concession.
“The launch of the NewBuy scheme is an important addition to lenders’ toolkit in addressing the various needs of would-be borrowers. The scheme has the potential to offset the dip in first-time buyer activity that the end of the stamp duty concession on 24 March may produce.”
Gerry Dupree, director of Dupree Mortgage Services, commented:
"For two months in a row, the imminent end of the stamp duty holiday has clearly injected a dash of urgency into the first time buyer market. There's a good chance that the momentum created will now continue into spring, especially as the NewBuy scheme breathes some much needed life into the new-build property market.
"Many mortgage lenders are still bruised and wary, but the return of 95% LTV loans shows a genuine willingness to lend. And as the mortgage market emerges from hibernation, property demand is slowly picking up.
"Many would-be buyers have been deferring their purchases in the hope that things would get better, but they are starting to realise that life has to go on and are finally starting to commit to a move. The bottleneck of buyers is starting to give.
"As more people see that buying can often be cheaper than renting, and that the deposit needed to buy has been shrinking, that frustrated demand is slowly taking control of a market which has been rudderless for nearly four years.
"After seven straight months of rising year-on-year lending, the mortgage market is proving more robust than many think. The recovery is slow and fragile, but it is real."
David Brown, commercial director of LSL Property Services, comments:
“A stronger than usual number of first-time buyers looking to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday played a role in the swollen lending figures in February, but there is a more encouraging long-term trend emerging.
"Lending figures have grown annually for seven consecutive months, suggesting lenders have been acclimatising to constrained funding environment. If lending holds up after the stamp duty holiday, this will demonstrate the relative stability of the market. However, despite the context of the approaching stamp duty holiday deadline, the impact of the growing buy-to-let sector of the market should not be underestimated.
"While the challenging economic conditions are likely to impact on the pace of any significant recovery in lending in the short-term, an ebullient buy-to-let market will continue underpin the wider mortgage market as the year progresses.”
Russell Quirk, director of online estate agents, eMoov.co.uk, says:
"It's steady as she goes in the mortgage market, and you have to take that given the current climate. Over the past three to four months, we've seen a noticeable spike in sales to first time buyers keen to save on stamp duty.
"The concern is that the market will fall flat on its face again when the stamp duty holiday ends later this week. The CML is optimistic about the effect of the NewBuy scheme. But I'm less convinced it will step up to the mark and make up for the end of the stamp duty holiday.
"No stamp duty is something people can get their heads around easily. The NewBuy scheme is not. While the end of the stamp duty holiday will almost certainly see first time buyer activity tail off, the most fundamental driver of the property market right now is pent-up demand.
"People have put their moves on hold for so long that they are now saying to hell with it. Pent-up demand is driving transactions and we expect it to create more momentum throughout 2012.
"Lenders have copped a lot of flak of late but there's no doubt that improved mortgage availability, especially at higher LTVs, has made the property market much more buoyant than a year ago.
"SVRs are going up but even with increasing rates, loan costs are still a shadow of what they have been historically. Transaction levels are still down relative to four or five years ago but then so is pretty much everything else."
Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, said:
“It might be the seventh straight month of growth in year-on-year gross lending, but that doesn’t mean it is seventh heaven yet for the mortgage market. Lending in 2010 and 2011 was so weak that they represent poor comparators by which to judge the current health of the market. The economy is beginning to thaw after a difficult winter, but the recovery is still on unstable ground. Recoveries following the bursting of asset bubbles are often slow and brittle.
"It will only take another eurozone crisis or a shock in oil prices to tip the economy back into recession, and this will permeate into the mortgage market. Lenders will be understandably cautious until t
