Debt advice news: Income worries linked to drop in mortgage lending

21/12/2009

A significant number of would-be first-time buyers have been unable to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday as personal income worries prevent them from making the step onto the property ladder, it has been suggested.

The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show that mortgage lending across the UK dropped by ten per cent over the course of November.

This is in spite of the fact that the stamp duty threshold is set to go back to £125,000 at the start of 2010, indicating that many people were unable to wrap up home purchases before the end of the year, as head been predicted.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, explained: "One would have expected, if anything, that [mortgage lending] would slightly increase in November and December as people aimed to complete before the end of the year.

"That is one of the reasons why a fall of ten per cent is so surprising."

These comments come soon after the National Association of Estate agents (NAEA) reported that just one in five home purchases in November were made by first-time buyers, again suggesting that many people are still struggling to raise the deposit needed to buy their own home as a result of personal income worries.

Tags; Income Worries and Debt,

• Share
• 
• 
• Store
• 
• Follow
•