Insurance News Archive

Mortgage approval improvement is 'good sign'

Written by Dan Winters

The market is set for a recovery soon given the improvement in mortgage approvals, according to a leading financial advisor.

Peter O'Donovan, the head of mortgages at Bestinvest, was not surprised by the recent trend in the mortgage market, adding that it was possibly reaching its bottom earlier than originally expected due to renewed confidence in property.

He explained: "There is that nice little green shoot that lending is starting to increase again, so hopefully month-on-month things will begin to improve a bit more and as the lending increases the lenders [will] start to relax some of their criteria."

Mr O'Donovan said the best indication was the increasing number of buyers who are having mortgages approved, as this may give way to many individuals starting to fight over certain locations and thus driving prices back up.

His comments follow figures by the British Bankers' Association which found that while April's net mortgage lending was the lowest for eight years, 27,685 mortgages were approved, signalling a rise of 3.8 per cent on the previous month.

29 May 2009