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BBA: Net lending on the up

Net home loans lending from banks strengthened last month, new figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) show.

Gross mortgage lending hit £17.9 billion for February - slightly down on the previous month's figure.

The £5.6 billion rise in net lending, however, up from the £5 billion added in January, was driven by homeowners remortgaging their properties.

BBA statistics director David Dooks said: "In an environment of tightening lending criteria, re-mortgaging, either to fix, re-fix, or reduce borrowing costs, has been a clear influence on mortgage data in the first two months of this year."

He added: "[This has] result[ed] in mainstream lenders picking up market share."

Commenting on the findings, Simon Rubinsohn at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors added: "Remortgaging levels still remain strong which in part reflects the ending of a large number of fixed rate mortgage deals.

"However, with lenders scaling back on loan to value ratios we expect a further drop in mortgage equity withdrawal over the coming months."

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