The housing market may take another dip as potential buyers struggle to get mortgages according to Bank of England policy maker Kate Barker.

The global credit crisis saw house prices in the UK drop by 20% at the lowest point as banks wary of risking new lending withdrew from the market and confidence was dented.

The market has however come back strongly since hitting bottom.

Barker, who has penned reviews of Britain’s housing supply and planning for the government and helps to set the interest rate said she had been surprised by the rebound.

“It seems more likely than not to me that mortgage finance is clearly not going to be available going forward on the terms it used to be,” Barker told MPs. (more…)

House prices in England and Wales are now 6.1% higher than they were a year ago, the largest monthly rise since April 2007 according to a survey by Right Move.

The average property price nationally in February was £229,398 a rise of 3.2% on January.

In London prices were up 5% on the month to a record £427,987, prices are now higher then at the peak of the property boom in 2007 after rising 10.3% over the last year. (more…)

Approved House purchase loans rose to a high of 53,300 in October a rise of 9% over September and up 43% from a year ago, said the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

“The amount of buyers has risen from a trough in January 2009 when only 23,000 loans were advanced. It is now up nearly 100 percent from that low point,” the CML stated.

Remortgaging loan numbers remain low but they’re not falling, they’re holding steady at 33,000 the same figure as September. However this is still one of the weakest figures since the records began in 2002.

October saw house prices rise by 0.6% according to a survey by the Land Registry

This is now the fifth month in a row that prices have risen said a Land Registry spokesman.

The average house price is now £159,546, which is 3.4% lower than October last year.

North West England saw the biggest rise at 1.9% while Wales experienced the largest fall of 2.3%. (more…)

UK Lenders are predicting mortgage availability to increase in the next few months as the outlook for the economy improves.

The Bank of England’s Trends in Lending report revealed that projection comes after availability dipped in the third quarter of the year.

New mortgages rates rose in August to an average of 4.3% up from 4.2% in July.

Credit card borrowing and loans continue.

Lenders have stated that there has been no increase in demand for car loans in spite of the rise in car sales on the back of the scrappage scheme. (more…)