Housing market and mortgages begins to climb

Some good news this week, a new report from the British Bankers Association (BBA) states that the number of mortgages awarded in August has increased by 81% compared to figures from the same month a year ago. So banks appear to be lending once again and it looks like people are once again dabbling within the housing market. Net lending for mortgages increased by £2.8bn in August another encouraging sign that confidence is once again returning to the housing market. The resurgence of the housing market has also provided a big knock on in trade for various other retailers including solicitors, estate agents, cleaning companies and van rental companies. The number of repossessions has also dropped in recent months, which is good news for the government as its’ housing scheme appears to have halted the amount of people losing their homes due to external financial pressures.

Across the rest of the financial sector other there are encouraging signs of re-growth appearing. It seems that people are saving a lot more and in August credit card borrowing was down by 13.6%. Repayment of credit card debts has also increased and now outweighs borrowing. In August savings levels jumped by £3.3bn which shows that consumers are still erring on the side of caution, rather than spending and borrowing.