{"id":618178,"date":"2026-06-03T03:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618178\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:21:22","slug":"uk-mortgage-approvals-for-house-purchases-surge-to-highest-level-in-over-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618178\/","title":{"rendered":"UK mortgage approvals for house purchases surge to highest level in over a year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UK<\/a> mortgage approvals have reached their highest level in over a year, new data from the Bank of England reveals.<\/p>\n

The central bank’s latest Money and Credit report showed 65,945 home purchase mortgages were approved in April.<\/p>\n

This represents a significant rise from the 63,979 recorded in March and exceeds the average of approximately 63,100 approvals seen over the previous six months.<\/p>\n

The surge in activity came amid a challenging economic environment, marked by recent increases in mortgage rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Economists are forecasting further interest rate hikes later this year, driven by ongoing inflationary pressures.<\/p>\n

Approvals for remortgaging, specifically for those switching lenders, remained broadly consistent with the figures from the preceding month.<\/p>\n

\"How How interest rates have changed in recent years <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, consumer credit borrowing was unchanged at around \u00a31.9 billion for the month, with net borrowing through credit cards rising to \u00a30.8 billion from \u00a30.7 billion in the previous month.<\/p>\n

Thomas Pugh, chief economist at RSM UK, said: \u201cDecent growth in consumer credit and another rise in mortgage approvals suggests households were unphased by the Iran<\/a> war in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, some of this is due to people bringing forward activity to capture lower interest rates<\/a> and it is difficult to see how that positive momentum lasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent drop in oil prices, even with yesterday\u2019s rebound, should help bring some normality back to the mortgage market, especially if the Bank of England takes a relatively measured view on the outlook for interest rates<\/a> at its next meeting later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, financial markets are now pricing in just one rate hike, albeit with a risk of a second.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Swannell, chief economic adviser to the Item Club, said: \u201cApril\u2019s increase in mortgage activity came despite the sharp rise in mortgage rates in recent months, but it likely reflects Easter-related distortions that will soon unwind.<\/p>\n

\u201cNet mortgage lending fell to \u00a34.4 billion in April, from \u00a36.8 billion a month earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK mortgage approvals have reached their highest level in over a year, new data from the Bank of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3490,84,1294,4813,210164,137871,1601,11750,210165,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-618178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bank-of-england","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-interest-rate","tag-mortgage-activity","tag-mortgage-approvals","tag-mortgage-lending","tag-mortgage-rates","tag-purchase-mortgages","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}