Lending for house purchase continues to dip

Lending levels dipped slightly in October, figures from the Bank of England have confirmed.

The number of loans for house purchase stood at 47,185, slightly down on the September figure of 47,369 and lower than the average for the previous six months of 48,503.

The Bank of England reported its figures shortly after the British Bankers Association also said that mortgages for house purchase slipped in October.

Although mortgage lending was up 3.5% by value – a rise of £1.7bn – compared with October 2009, numbers of approvals for house purchase were at their lowest level all year. The figure stood at 30,766 compared with 31,058 in September and 33,914 in October last year.

The average value of house purchase approvals was £144,900, 2% higher than a year ago.

Both sets of figures show that a number of sales are going through without a mortgage.

Residential sales transactions were 73,000 in October, HMRC has estimated.

The figure is lower than the 77,000 recorded for both September and August and well below 81,000 in July – the highest monthly total this year.

In October 2009, there were 82,000 house sale completions, according to HMRC.