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Surprise! Housing market stages unexpected April recovery

Latest research by UK Finance and NAEA Propertymark reveal improving activity as transactions and mortgage approvals increase.

Nigel Lewis

halifax housing market

The housing market recovered significantly last month according to the latest mortgage lending figures from the UK’s banks and building societies.

Their trade body, UK Finance, has revealed that total mortgage approvals during April were 43,000, the highest monthly figure for over two years, and nearly 6% more than during March.

It is also 4,000 more mortgage approvals than were forecast.

Jeremy Leaf image“Home purchase approvals, which are the most important element of these figures, were strongly higher in April but reflect a rather up and down period for the market,” says London agent Jeremy Leaf (left).

“Nevertheless, it is a positive, and once again demand proves to be more resilient, which it should be at this time of year.”

Shepherd Ncube, CEO of Manchester-based Springbok Properties, says: “Today’s mortgage approval numbers are a welcome relief from the negativity and uncertainty that many property market commentators have portrayed since the early days of Brexit;  buyer confidence is shrugging off the political shenanigans that would otherwise seek to paralyse our economy and the housing market.

“House prices, especially in the north, are seeing no signs of relenting and mortgage approvals being so buoyant is bound to now factor into higher prices in a few months’ time.”

Sales agreed

The UK Finance figures are also reflected in the latest housing market research by NAEA Propertymark, which reveals that the number of sales agreed per member increased for the first time this year from seven properties per branch in March to eight in April, despite member agents reporting a reduction in both supply and demand.

 

 

May 29, 2019

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