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Latest Bank of England mortgage approvals figures

ended 04. January 2023

On Wednesday morning at 09:30, the Bank of England is publishing its Money & Credit report for November 2022, which covers mortgages, savings, personal loans and credit card usage. Please answer the Qs below. If you're a Premium user, your response will be edited by an experienced journalist and appear at the top of the News Alert.

  • Are you seeing more people turn to unsecured personal loans and credit cards to shore up their finances as rates rise and energy bills soar? In short, are households under growing financial stress?
  • Are you seeing more people remortgaging or taking out secured loans (second charges) to free up some additional cash to help them through the cost of living crisis?
  • What was the demand for mortgages like in November (and December)? 
  • In October, mortgage approvals for house purchases continued their slide, falling to to 59,000 from 66,000 in September. Are you expecting to see this trend continue in November?
  • Are you seeing more people squirrel away money in savings accounts to help them through the potentially difficult 12-18 months ahead?

Any other thoughts and insights, jot them down.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
Personal unsecured debt is shooting up, as the cost of living becomes a real tangible struggle. As mortgage lenders are reluctant to offer debt consolidation loans, more and more debt is being put on credit cards and overdrafts, then onto personal loans.

Secured loans will increase, as this is a viable option as debt consolidation as well as a vehicle that means the original interest rate for the major loan doesn't have to be refinanced. Useful, if the homeowner has a super low rate.

Mortgage approvals will fall to a new record low, and will continue falling until summer 2023 when the central bank will pivot on rates.

Unlike last months report, the savings ratio will struggle to increase much further as people are starting to rely on this cash as the cost of living bites, hard.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
The demand is still there, we are still receiving lots of enquiries and have placed a few clients this month. Most are not stretching their affordability to the max, but I prefer this.
As we are a niche market, we don't really see the same volumes as some, so we spend more time on each and experience significantly less declines. Our clients also don't really rely on credit.
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Emma Hollingworth
Managing Director, Mortgages at MPowered Mortgages
Emma Hollingworth, Managing Director of Mortgages at mortgage lender MPowered Mortgages says: "As we enter 2023, what's certain is that homeowners and borrowers will continue to feel the squeeze on their finances as energy bills soar and mortgage payments rise. However, the expected fall in house prices and mortgage rates will bring some welcome news for borrowers in 2023."