LONDON (Reuters) -British lenders approved more mortgages than expected last month, adding to signs that the housing market has recovered from a dip after the expiry of a tax break for homebuyers, and consumers also upped their borrowing, data showed on Tuesday.
The Bank of England said 64,167 mortgages were approved in June, up from 63,288 in May. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to 63,000 approvals during the month.
The expiry in April of a discount on the stamp duty paid by some homebuyers led to a drop in approvals to just over 60,000 that month before a recovery in May and June.
Richard Donnell, executive director at real estate website Zoopla, linked the rise in demand for mortgages to stable borrowing costs.
“Zoopla data shows unusually high levels of housing market activity for the early summer with sales agreed up 8% on last year and 11% more buyers in the market,” Donnell said. “We expect increased housing activity to support demand for mortgages in the rest of the year.”
The BoE also said unsecured consumer borrowing increased by 1.417 billion pounds ($1.89 billion) in June, stronger than the median forecast for a 1.2 billion-pound rise in the Reuters poll of economists and up from May’s rise of 920 million pounds.
($1 = 0.7498 pounds)
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Alison Williams and David Milliken)
