UK Banks Approved Nearly 1 Million Mortgages In 2019, 7.4% More Than A Year Ago

Data gathered by Learnbonds.com indicates the United Kingdom's high street banks approved 982,286 mortgages in 2019. This is an increase of 7.4% from 2018’s 909,597.

Increase in approvals from the second half of 2019

According to the data, mortgage approval for home purchases increased by 8% for 2019 compared to the previous year. In total, 507,789 mortgages were approved for home purchases in 2019. The highest approval for home purchases was in July at 51,160.

On the other hand, compared to 2018, there was a rise in remortgage approval for 2019 by 7.9%. Across the year, the total remortgages were 367,590. The highest remortgage approval was in October 38,549 while the least approval was in January at 23,618.

For other borrowing avenues, there was an increase of 3% in 2019 compared to the previous year. Under this category mortgages, approval was 106,907 in 2019.

The data further indicates that the entire market mortgage lending in 2019 was £265.8 billion following December’s £22.2 billion. The gross lending was 1.1% lower than in 2018.

Under this figure, the high street banks’ lending was £172.1 billion to have a cumulative figure of £437.91 billion for 2019.

The data shows that there was a spike in high street bank lending in October 2019 when lending stood at £25.1 billion.

Historically, the 2019 figures are below the expected standards, how considering the market situation, the mortgage sector performed exemplary. Uncertainty over Brexit and the upcoming general election might have strained the market.

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