Net mortgage borrowing rose from £4.2bn to £7.4bn on a monthly basis in May, shows new data from the Bank of England (BoE).
This, says the BoE, puts the borrowing figure above the pre-pandemic average of £4.3bn in the 12 months to February 2020.
Meanwhile, gross lending rose from £21.6bn to £21.8bn from April to May.
The same data shows that approvals for house purchases grew, going from 66,100 to 66,200 while the value remained at £6.2bn.
And approvals for remortgages were static across the month, at 47,800 and at a value of £10.2bn. “This remains below the 12-month pre-pandemic average up to February 2020 of 49,500,” details the report.
Phoebus Software sales and marketing director Richard Pike says: “It would be easy to think that all the news of inflation and soaring prices would make many think twice about moving or buying, but for the time being that does not appear to be the case.
“There is still plenty of demand to buy and sell but there will come a time, if the monetary policy committee continues on its path of raising interest rates to curb inflation, when worries over finances may affect confidence. For now, though, with plenty of lender appetite and competitive rates, we are looking at a pretty healthy picture.”
And Shaw Financial Services founder Lewis Shaw says: “Demand for mortgages has been robust for the past few months, although a drop off in approvals may materialise in the months ahead as steam is taken out of the property market by a lack of stock, rising inflation and increasing mortgage rates.”
He adds: “The outlook for the next half of the year is going to be thousands of debt consolidation remortgages as people look to clear their balance sheet with the newly found equity in their homes.”