May 25, 2011 | Author

Author Alec Hanson

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) believe that the large fall in lending, down 14% in April, is potentially due to the Easter break couples with the Royal wedding bank holiday.

At an estinated £9.8 billion, lending was also 5% lower than in April 2010.

Although this decline was expected and can be attributed to the short month in April, it is difficult to gauge wether this was the total cause of the large fall, or whether there is an underlying trend.

CML chief economist Bob Pannell said:

“Levels of activity look set to remain broadly flat over the near-term. It now seems unlikely that interest rates will rise much, if at all, this year and this should help keep the market on an even keel.”

Yet again the housing news shows that the economic situation is less than clear.

For full market commentary from Bob Pannell visit: http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/publications/marketcommentary /cml/publications/marketcommentary