Mortgage woes continue to weigh on the market

The slowdown in the UK mortgage market continued during March, the Bank of England has said.

The Bank of England said 64,000 loans were approved for purchases during the month, down from 72,000 in February, making this the lowest since the current records began in January 1999.

The figure is also down 44% on the figure for the same month in 2007.

There was also a drop in loans approved for remortgaging, down 11,000 in March from February’s 98,000. Other Mortgage approvals, such for equity release or buy-to-let were also down 6,000 to 57,000.

Net lending secured on homes was £6.9bn and led to another monthly fall in the annual growth rate, down from 9.4% in February to 9.1% in March.