Mortgage Approvals up 20% in February
Signs of a slight revival in the housing market were seen this morning, with a 19% jump in mortgage approvals in February.A total of 37,937 loans were approved for people buying a home during the month, the highest level since May last year, according to the Bank of England.
Today's figures, which beat economists expectations and are well up on the recent six month average of 31,495, suggest sales may be picking up again.
Vicky Redwood, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: "February's household borrowing figures suggest that housing market activity may finally have turned a corner.
"The rise in the number of mortgage approvals for new house purchase... might suggest that the pickup in new buyer inquiries is feeding through into actual activity. With new buyer inquiries still rising, this is clearly quite promising."
But she added that approvals levels would need to broadly double before they were no longer consistent with falling house prices.
Despite the pickup, approvals for house purchase were still 44 per cent lower than in February 2008.
A further sign of the housing market showing some signs of improvement was proven by figures released from Hometrack showing a slowing in the rate of house price falls during March as activity in the market increased.
The group said house prices in England and Wales dropped by 0.6%, the lowest fall for 10 months, while both the number of potential buyers registering with agents and the number of sales agreed continued to rise.
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