Bank of England mortgage approvals drop off in July 2021
British homeowners repaid £1.4 billion of mortgage debt, on net, in July 2021, according to new data published today by the Bank of England.
Net repayments are relatively rare, with only one other repayment (in April 2020) in the past decade.
The net repayment in July followed record borrowing in June (£17.7 billion), which Threadneedle Street says was likely boosted by the initial tapering off of the stamp duty holiday.
Gross lending fell to its lowest since June 2020, at £16.5 billion. Gross repayments were a little below the twelve month average, at £18.1 billion.
Approvals drop
Approvals for house purchases, an indicator of future borrowing, decreased further in July to 75,200. This is the lowest since July 2020, but remains above pre-February 2020 levels.
Approvals for remortgage (which only capture remortgaging with a different lender) rose to 37,400 in July, from 35,800 in June. This remains low compared to the months running up to February 2020.
Key points:
- Individuals repaid £1.4 billion of mortgage debt on net in July following record net borrowing in June of £17.7 billion. Mortgage approvals for house purchase were 75,200 in July, down from 80,300 in June.
- Consumers did not borrow additional consumer credit, on net. The effective rate on new personal loans remained low at 5.85%, but was the highest since March 2020.
Below are the views of Newspage's mortgage experts on the data.
