Lending continue its steady increase within 2012

The Bank of England’s Lending to Individuals figures for January shows a continual trend of steady, albeit slow, increases in lending.

In fact the lending in January was up by £1.8 billion, improving on the 6 month average of £1.1 billion – leaving a 12 month rate of 1.0%, up by 0.1% in the month.

Within this lending the figures where secured on dwellings also by £1.6 billion, again improving on the previous 6 monthly average of £0.8 billion. The 12 month growth rate on lending secured on dwellings was unchanged at 0.8%.

However this is a far cry from the 12 month growth rates seen in the boom of 2003-2004, reaching over 15%, and still below the lows of 4% seen during the late 1990s.

Housing lending totals

The total gross lending secured on dwellings, with the rise of £1.6 billion, now stands at £12.8 billion for January.

Repayments against this secured lending was £11.7 billion, approximately the same as the previous 6 month average of £11.5 billion.

The lending approval figures however were a mixed bag:

• loans for house purchase (58,728) increased and was higher than the previous six-month average (52,839)
• loans for remortgaging (31,952) decreased in January, and was lower than the previous six-month average (33,039)
• approvals for other purposes (19,679) also decreased in January, and was lower than the previous six-month average (20,717)