New boost for housing market

HOMEOWNERS' mortgage borrowing increased in September, while the number of loans approved for house purchase also grew, new figures have shown.

Net lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, reached £922 million, according to the Bank of England – below August's revised £1.28 billion.

The number of mortgages approved for house purchase rose to 56,215 from August's 52,970, suggesting the recent improvement in the housing market will continue.

Yesterday's figures showed a downward revision of July's data, indicating that homeowners repaid £292m more than was advanced in the month.

This was the first time lending had been negative since the Bank began collecting data in its current format in 1993.

The mortgage approval numbers were the highest since March last year. But there was a further fall in homeowners remortgaging, with those switching to a new deal down 10 per cent on August's total, to 25,528.

Overall lending through unsecured credit, such as credit cards and loans, was negative for the third month in a row.