Mortgage lender confidence 'will take time to recover'

Posted: 19 Feb 2010 11:50:28 GMT

Mortgage lending in the UK is likely to continue to decline over the next few months as confidence in the sector is going to take some time to recover, one expert has stated.

Timothy Lambert, head of consulting at Ducalian, says that even though the economy is showing growth at the moment, it is still in a very "fragile" state and this is causing lenders to be more wary about who they offer home loans to.

"After the worst recession in decades, which was exacerbated by excessive and unscrupulous lending in the states, mortgage lenders … are also being careful about who they lend to," he advises.

His comments come in response to recent figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which revealed that mortgage lending declined to an estimated £9.1 billion in January - a 32 per cent fall from the £13.4 billion worth of home loan deals that were secured in December.

This is the lowest monthly total since February 2000 and experts at the CML have attributed this fall in borrowing to the end of the stamp duty holiday.

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