According to just released industry figures the number of mortgage approvals is down by a massive 20 percent compared with last month and almost 60 percent less than the same time last year.
There were just 28,000 mortgages approved last month, the lowest number since the records began in 1997. Bank of Scotland, for which mortgages are a core part of their business confirmed the validity of these numbers, saying they had seen similar, though not as extreme, results.
What the Bank of Scotland have seen though is a continuation in the level of remortgage business, something that they have been pleased with since this shows that there is still interest in the rates as they stand.
Sales of property with values over GBP1 million went up by 36 percent in 2007 compared with the previous year according to Halifax data.
There were over 8,250 sales of million pound plus properties, with over three quarters of them being in the south east of England and London. The largest increase in sales of million pound properties was in Scotland, where the measured increase by the Halifax was 138 percent. This was followed closely by the north east of England, with a 136 percent increase.
The south east has always had strong property values, said a Halifax representative, so it is not surprising to see it heading the number of sales list. It is also notable that rising property prices nationwide have driven up these type of sales further afield.
The Nationwide Building Society housing data for April reveals that house prices fell by just over one percent during April, taking them to a lower price point than the same time last year.
This latest house price fall takes the market to a position where, for the first time in ten years, there has been a year on year decrease. A Nationwide Building Society spokesman thought that the falling price of property showed how lack of affordability and more difficult access to mortgages was really pressing the market.
They also went on to say that, with the market falling as it has been doing it may prompt further base rate cuts by the Bank of England. The Nationwide Building Society figures show a steep fall in property transactions over the last six months or so and this latest data suggests something really needs to be done to stimulate activity once more.
