David Dooks Half Quotations

Weaker mortgage lending in the first half of 2005 led to annual totals weaker than in 2004, but gross lending and loans approved for house purchase finished the year on an upward trend, after allowing for seasonal factors.

The comparative weakness of the mortgage market in the first half of last year means that current indicators of activity, i.e. gross lending and approvals, are much stronger than they were 12 months earlier when the housing market was somewhat subdued, but they are by no means yet approaching the levels of activity seen in 2004.