25/11/2014

'Continued Cooling' Of Housing Market - BBA

There has been a 16% drop in the number of mortgages agreed by UK banks in the last year, according to banking industry body, BBA.

Highlighting what they described as the "continued cooling" of the housing market, the BBA added that unsecured borrowing increased by 2.8%, its highest rate since 2008.

Commenting on the figures, BBA Chief Economist Richard Woolhouse, said: "Today's figures suggest that the cooling of the property market has continued in recent weeks. Approvals were 16% lower in October than in the same month last year – the corresponding figure for September was a 10% decline.

"Despite a softening in the housing market, consumers continue to show confidence in the economy with unsecured borrowing at its highest growth rate in years. At the same time we all continue to make the most of new ISA rules, stashing more in our savings accounts over the course of the last year."

(MH/JP)

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