The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) believes January will show that mortgage lending is slowing.
It argues that the latest Bank of England mortgage data published today confirms the likelihood that there may have been a so-called ‘bunching’ of house purchase transactions in December to beat the stamp duty concession deadline.
The gross lending total of £13.4 billion in December 2009 was in line with the CML’s estimate (£13.5 billion) and seems to confirm the CML’s view that much activity was “rushed through”” to beat the stamp duty deadline. Gross lending totalled £143.5 billion in 2009.
