Home-owner house purchase lending up 60 per cent year-on-year - CML

Borrowers took out 69,800 loans, up 45 per cent on February and 38 per cent on March 2015.

First-time buyers borrowed £4.5bn, up 32 per cent on February and 29 per cent on March last year. This totalled 28,100 loans, up 28 per cent month-on-month and 17 per cent year-on-year.

Home movers borrowed £9.3bn, up 75 per cent on February and 82 per cent compared to a year ago. This totalled 41,700 loans, up 60% month-on-month and 58 per cent on March 2015.

Remortgage activity totalled £4.7bn, down 2 per cent on February but up 7 per cent compared to a year ago. This came to 28,000 loans, down 2 per cent month-on-month but up 0.4 per cent compared to a year ago.

Landlords borrowed £7.1bn, up 87 per cent month-on-month and 163 per cent year-on-year. This came to 45,000 loans in total, up 88 per cent compared to February and up 142 per cent compared to March 2015.

The CML also revealed that the first quarter of 2016 saw UK home-owners borrow £30.9bn for house purchase, down 9 per cent quarter-on-quarter but up 33 per cent year-on-year. They took out 164,200 loans, down 14 per cent on the previous quarter but up 20 per cent compared to the first quarter of last year.

First-time buyers borrowed £11.2bn, down 16 per cent on the fourth quarter 2015 but up 22 per cent on the first quarter last year. This totalled 71,500 loans, down 18 per cent quarter-on-quarter but up 12 per cent year-on-year.

Home movers borrowed £19.7bn, down 4 per cent quarter-on-quarter but up 40 per cent compared to a year ago. This totalled 92,700 loans, down 9 per cent quarter-on-quarter but up 26 per cent on quarter one 2015.

Remortgage activity totalled £15.4bn, up 2 per cent on the fourth quarter 2015 and 25 per cent compared to a year ago. This came to 90,100 loans, up 1 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 15 per cent compared to a year ago.

Landlords borrowed £14.6bn in the period, up 36 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 92 per cent year-on-year. This came to 92,700 loans in total, up 31 per cent compared to the fourth quarter 2015 and 77 per cent compared to the first quarter 2015.

The CML now publishes seasonally adjusted monthly and quarterly data (see attached), alongside the normal unadjusted data. This makes it easier to spot underlying trends.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: “Activity was distorted in March due to a rush to beat the introduction of changes to stamp duty on second properties in April, alongside the seasonal uptick in activity before Easter. While the increases are substantial, these supercharged levels of activity are likely to be temporary and will fall back over the summer months.”