The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) confirmed that gross mortgage lending hit £25.7bn in March 2016 – a 59% increase on March 2015.[1]
Completion of property purchases that it are not the buyer’s main residence saw a 3% stamp duty surcharge introduced on 1st April 2016. It is predicted by the CML that property purchases will decrease due to this new stamp duty surcharge being in place.
Gross mortgage lending was 43% higher than February, the CML said.
CML economist Mohammad Jamei reported that “The distortion caused by this stamp duty change appears to be larger than any previous stamp duty change we have seen.”
“As a result, we expect there will be about 10,000 fewer mortgaged transactions each month in the second quarter of 2016 than would otherwise have been the case, offsetting the increase in activity seen in March.”
There were 161,990 properties sold in the UK during the month, the highest monthly number since June 2006, and up from 92,690 sales in February.[2]
We’ve been tremendously busy here at Turney & Associates in February and March with mortgage applications, especially to our clients who are Landlords. We wish our clients who completed by 31st March every success with their property purchase(s)! Plus well done to our diligent team for all of their hard work over this period to help our clients to complete on their property purchases!
[1] https://www.cml.org.uk/news/news-and-views/market-commentary-april-2016/
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36100104
