The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) added that mortgage lending remains robust, despite the five interest rate rises since last August – although the full impact of higher rates has not yet been seen. Lending is currently being fuelled by a large number of people remortgaging to better deals, incase rates go any higher.
As autumn approaches, the cumulative effects of these rate rises will become more pronounced, which is expected to feed through to lower levels of mortgage lending as the year progresses. However, the CML still believes that mortgage lending is on target to reach a record GBP360 billion for this year.