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Mortgage lending 'gets a lift'

Mortgage lending increased slightly in January, new figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show.

According to the council's latest monthly report, lending increased 11 per cent over December to £26.5 billion.

Lending is £0.1 billion down on January 2007.

This bucks the general trend of the mortgage market being less busy in January, with CML director general Michael Coogan commenting that lending "held up well" for the month.

However, the CML is counselling that there is a difficult few months ahead for the sector, caused in part by the ongoing effects of the credit crunch.

"We expect lending volumes to be lower in the coming months," Mr Coogan added.

"Home buyers might be more inclined to transact if their moving costs were reduced and the government has the opportunity to address this by raising stamp duty thresholds and cutting the rates of stamp duty in next month's Budget."

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