Approvals for house purchase were little changed in June at 64,684 and remain around 4,000 lower than in January. However approvals for remortgaging ticked up to 44,548 in June, similar to numbers seen earlier over winter and the highest number since January.
Net secured lending ticked up to £4.1 billion in June, slightly above its recent average.
Jeremy Duncombe, Director, Legal & General Mortgage Club, commented: “Today’s results are indicative of how resilient the housing market is. However, what the figures do not show is that buyers are having to borrow larger sums of money as house prices continue to rise at a much higher rate than wage inflation.
“Put simply, house prices are making it extremely challenging for first time buyers to become home owners. To add to this, people already on the ladder are finding themselves stuck in their current homes due to the lack of supply, and the costs associated with moving. To redress these issues, the Government needs to focus on building more housing across all types of tenure, as well as re-visiting whether levies such as Stamp Duty are stopping people moving.”
