Recent figures from UK Finance have revealed that gross mortgage lending in September came in at over £20 billion.
According to the new financial trade association, the estimated figure was £21.4 billion – which is 5% higher than this time last year.
“As we near the end of 2017, our data is showing that housing market activity has built up modest momentum since the start of the year, helped by an increase in first-time buyer numbers,” commented Mohammad Jamei, senior economist at UK Finance. “Rising inflation continues to put pressure on household budgets which is impacting consumer spending. Consumer credit growth has edged up a little compared to last month, but is in line with annual growth rates over the last year.”
Nearly two-thirds of this lending, which equates to £13.7 billion, was carried out by High Street Banks which include Barclays, HSBC Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Santander UK, TSB and Virgin Money.
However, UK Finance revealed that business borrowing has moderated over the course of 2017, with the growth rate for borrowing by wholesale and retail businesses slowing the most, as these customer-facing sectors could be affected by any cutbacks in consumer spending.
“Businesses remain cautious about the future amidst an uncertain economic environment, reflected by their growing deposit activity and a dip in their borrowing growth rate,” concluded Jamei.
