UK mortgage market ticked up in June, latest figures show

The mortgage market in the UK has started to grow once again during June with approvals for home lending up month on month and year on year, the latest data shows.

While overall the number of loans are now up 1.4% compared to June 2016, some parts of the market are performing better than others, according to the latest mortgage monitor from residential chartered surveyors e.surv.

For example, the proportion of loans granted to buyers with a small deposit actually fell month on month with 18.5% of all loans in June, below the 21.3% recorded previous month and the high of 21.5%, recorded in April.

But this is still well above the most recent low, recorded in December 2016, when those with small deposits represented just 16.1% of the market.

Large deposit buyers, defined as those with a deposit of 60% or more, accounted for 34.5% of the total home loan market this month, up from 33.9% in May but it is the fifth month in a row that those with large deposits have accounted for less than 35% of the total market.

Meanwhile, the mid-market borrowers saw their share of approvals edge closer half of the market with 47% of all mortgages approved in June, up from the 44.8% the month before.

‘With the whole market moving this means that home owners are able to move up the ladder, or to downsize if they need to. This also creates room at the bottom for first time buyers to jump onto the ladder in future months,’ said Richard Sexton, director of e.surv.

‘While the number of small deposit buyers being approved for mortgages has fallen, this should not be seen as a negative. As those properties up the ladder change hands this will free up those homes at the bottom of the market for first time buyers in future months. This allows the cycle of growth to continue,’ he explained.

The research also shows that first -time buyers and those with small deposits are proportionately more likely to have a mortgage application approved in Yorkshire than anywhere else in the UK. Some 28.1% of all loans in the region were made to small deposit buyers during June 2017.

This put Yorkshire ahead of nearest challengers the North West at 26.3% and Northern Ireland at 25.7%. These were the only three areas to have more than a quarter of loans given to small deposit borrowers.

At the other end of the scale, London was the region which saw the smallest proportion of small deposit loans approved with 14.3% of loans to this part of the market compared to 17.9% last month.

London was the region most dominated by those with more cash or equity to put down. In June 40.5% of all mortgage loans were given to those with large deposits, higher than anywhere else in the UK. The South East at 39.2% and the South and South Wales at 37.7% were the other regions with the highest proportion of these loans.