UK mortgage approvals declined to a seven-year low in March as measures to contain the spread of [coronavirus][1] started to affect housing market, data from the Bank of England showed Friday.
Mortgage approvals fell to 56,161 in March from 73,674 in February. This was the lowest level since March 2013 and below forecast of 60,000.
In the mortgage market, evidence of a decline in housing market activity started to become apparent in March mortgage approval statistics, which fell by just over 20 percent, the BoE said.
Secured lending increased by GBP 4.8 billion compared to economists’ forecast of GBP 3.5 billion. The annual growth in secured lending rose to 3.6 percent.
At the same time, households repaid GBP 3.8 billion of consumer credit in March, the largest net repayment since the series began.
Businesses borrowed GBP 34.1 billion of loans from banks in March. The annual growth came in at 8.2 percent.
Further, data showed that M4 money supply grew 2.8 percent on a monthly basis in March, faster than the 0.4 percent rise in February. Annual growth in M4 advanced to 8.1 percent from 5.1 percent.
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