6
Apr
Mortgage lending 'clearer positive sign than house prices'
The recently-recorded increase in mortgage lending offers more
substantial evidence of the start of a market recovery than house
price statistics, it has been claimed.
Director of property website Mouseprice.co.uk Selwyn Kim said the
recent contradictory figures for property values in March - with
Nationwide showing a rise and Halifax a fall - are like "crocodile
teeth", as they fluctuate from month to month.
He said such figures are "more of a feature of index volatility
than any underlying movement in real house prices".
In contrast, Mr Lim suggested, the Bank of England figures showing
a rise in the number of mortgages lent in February are is "far more
encouraging" as they show real data and not speculative
information.
Commenting on the Nationwide house price figures when they were
released last week, the building society's chief economist
Fionnuala Earley urged caution.
She said: "It is far too soon to see this as evidence that the
trough of the market has been reached."
