Insurance News Archive

Fewer Scottish buy to let insurance policyholders taking mortgages

Posted by Michael Brown

House purchase lending in Scotland mirrored the rest of the UK by falling 33 per cent in the first three months of 2010, according to new figures.

There were 9,700 loans to homebuyers, worth a total of £1.1 billion, down from 14,400, equating to £1.6 billion, in the same period last year.

Kennedy Foster, policy consultant for Scotland at the Council of Mortgage Lenders, has put the fall down to the fact that many homebuyers brought their purchase forward to benefit from the stamp duty holiday.

He said: "The pace of recovery in Scotland at first sight appears slower than the rest of the UK, but in fact throughout the current housing cycle, market activity in Scotland has followed that of the whole of the UK very closely.

Mr Foster added that the severe winter weather seen in Scotland in January and February could also have had an adverse effect on the market.

This comes after a Guardian report, earlier in the week, suggested that estate agents have seen a considerable rise in the number of landlords looking to offload their properties before the government raises capital gains tax in June.

27 May 2010