Previous Month and Chris Williamson

Chris Williamson: The number of mortgages increased in June by 4% on the previous month, suggesting that tighter borrowing criteria imposed by the financial regulator this year had only cooled the market for a few months, according to The Guardian. More than half of those loans were taken out by home movers, although the number of first-time buyers showed a bigger month-on-month increase, making up slightly less than half of the total at 28,600. Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said a continuing stream of positive data on the housing market would add to the pressure on the Bank to increase rates. "A few more months of data showing the property market is booming and double-digit price growth will add to the pressure on the Bank," he said and The latest mortgage lending data has added to the Bank of England dilemma over interest rates after a sharp rise in borrowing showed the property market had regained its previous momentum. The Council of Mortgage Lenders said a survey of the biggest lenders showed that 60,500 house purchase loans, worth 10bn, were taken out during the month, an increase of 5% by number and 6% by value on May figures. Compared with June 2013, the figures were 15% and 23% higher respectively. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.