CML talks down mortgage 'pessimism'

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has played down some of the more negative views that have arisen in the mortgage market recently.

Various studies in past weeks have painted a bleak picture for lenders and borrowers in the UK. The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has pointed to a 25.4 per cent year-on-year drop in lending during October, while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has spoken of "emerging pressures" in the market.

Indeed, the latter called on the Bank of England (BoE) to act in order to make it easier for first-time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder. The institution will perhaps then be surprised by the Bank's latest statement on lending.

According to the BoE's statistical release, the number of loans secured on dwellings that were approved in October did fall - but not to the extent the BBA has claimed.

Sue Anderson, head of external relations at the CML, said that the Bank's statement represents "pretty good news" and shows that lending is holding up better than "pessimists" had expected.

"Naturally there is a slowdown and that reflects a mixture of what we've been expecting to happen at this point in the year […] and the exacerbating factors of the slowdown in funding, but I think it is more robust than doomsters have been predicting and that's quite good news for the market," she added.