July house purchase lending down 13 per cent on June - CML

The Council for Mortgage Lenders said they took out 58,100 loans, down 14 per cent on June and 13 per cent on July 2015.

First-time buyers borrowed £4.4 billion, down 19 per cent on June and 4 per cent on July last year. This equated to 28,200 loans, down 17 per cent month-on-month and 6 per cent year-on-year.

Home movers borrowed £6.2 billion, down 9 per cent on June and 16 per cent compared to a year ago. This represented 29,900 loans, down 11 per cent month-on-month and 19 per cent on July 2015.

Remortgage activity totalled £6 billion, up 7 per cent on June and 20 per cent compared to a year ago. This came to 33,400 loans, up 3 per cent month-on-month and 10 per cent compared to a year ago.

Landlords borrowed £3 billion, up 3 per cent month-on-month but down 21 per cent year-on-year. This came to 18,600 loans in total, up 1 per cent compared to June and down 26 per cent compared to July 2015.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: “These figures cover the first full month of lending following the EU referendum. They show a month-on-month decline in first-time buyer and home mover activity and muted activity on the BTL market. It is hard to determine whether these figures reflect a first uncertain reaction to the referendum vote, or are a sign of a market which was already cooling. It will be quite some time before a full assessment can be made. We do believe that the Buy-to-let lending market is still readjusting after the large level of activity before the changes to stamp duty on second properties in April.

“Remortgage lending on the other hand has continued to grow, and reacted with a 7-year monthly high. Borrowers seem keen to take advantage of the wide range of competitive deals in the market and, following the base rate cut in August, this is likely to continue.”