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News
News review
A look at the major issues of the month
by Nia Williams
T
here has been bad news for product the second month in a row, the speed of descent the underlying pace of house price decline is eas-
numbers this month, according to the has definitely slowed suggesting that we might be ing. There are further indications of a modest
June TrigoldCrystal Product Index. reaching some welcome stability in the market. It improvement in sales activity, albeit at a very low
The Index,constructed from data from is still a tough commercial landscape for brokers level. Industry-wide figures show that the num-
their mortgage sourcing system in May, has although reports of increased house sales and ber of mortgages approved to finance house pur-
revealed that the average number of live mort- suggestions that prices are on the up should be chase increased for the fourth successive month
gage products available to mortgage interme- welcome news. Broker activity – the number of in May. Approvals were at their highest level
diaries has fallen by 6.45 per cent from April times they physically source the market on behalf since April 2008 and 10 per cent higher than a
to 2,673. of a client – has also fallen by 10 per cent in May year earlier.
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According to the mortgage product highlights: but this is likely to be in direct relation to a gen- “Improvements in affordability and low inter-
The average number of live products available eral slowdown in the housing market. est rates have stimulated housing demand. This,
to mortgage intermediaries fell from 2,858 in “The good news for borrowers and intermedi- together with a low level of properties available
April to 2,673 in May – a fall of 185 individual aries is that there are still over 2,500 products to for sale, has helped to stabilise activity and
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products. choose from including schemes available up to reduce the underlying rate of house price decline
Year on year analysis shows that mortgage 95 per cent Loan to Value.” in recent months.
product availability was significantly lower “Whilst there have been encouraging recent
than previous years being down by 80 per cent House prices signs of improvement, the outlook for the UK
from May 2008 and 96 per cent from May Some good news this month came from the economy remains uncertain with unemployment
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2007. Halifax and the Nationwide. The Halifax House set to continue rising for sometime. Overall, we
The average number of live Direct Only prod- Price Index for June showed that house prices expect to see a continuing mixed pattern of
ucts available in the month of April was 1,118. declined by 0.5 per cent. The mixed picture of monthly house price rises and falls over the
This is an increase of 109 products. monthly rises and falls so far this year contrasts remainder of 2009."
sharply with the consistent succession of signifi-
Mortgage sourcing cant monthly declines recorded in 2008. This Consumer confidence
The index shows that 642,321 mortgage indicates that the underlying rate of decline in The latest Nationwide Consumer Confidence
sources were performed in May which is a fall in house prices has eased, according to the Halifax. Index shows that people are more confident
intermediary activity of 10.40 per cent when The index also showed that house prices about the state of the housing market and the
compared with April, a fall in broker activity in declined by 1.9 per cent in Quarter 2. This was economy in general as confidence levels are now
real terms of 74,546 individual mortgage search- the smallest quarterly fall since 2008 Quarter 1 very close to those recorded this time last year.
es. This is a significant 47 per cent drop in broker and was significantly less than the 5-6 per cent In particular, consumers are more confident
activity from May 2008 and means that 579,420 declines seen in the last three quarters of 2008. the economy will be better than today in six
fewer individual mortgage searches performed. The UK average price has returned to where it months time. In fact, this is the first time since
However, as David Aylmer, marketing and was five years ago in 2004 Quarter 2 (£157,091). the Index began in May 2004 that more people
business development director at TrigoldCrystal, Commenting, Martin Ellis, housing econo- have said they expect the economy to be better in
said: “Although product numbers have fallen for mist, said: "These figures provide evidence that six months than think it will be worse.
Expectations about house price falls over the
TrigoldCrystal Product Index March 09 April 09 May 09
next six months improved further in June.
Consumers now expect prices to fall by just 0.6
Total number of mortgage sources 802,707 716,867 642,321
per cent over the next six months, compared
with 1.6 per cent in May.
Average monthly mortgage payment £759.34 £761.39 £769.57
Experts seem to agree that we have reached
Average number of [Intermediary Only] products 2,777 2,858 2,673
the bottom of the recession and, whilst there will
be some bounces along the bottom for quite a
NEW: Average number of DIRECT ONLY products N/A 1,009 1,118
considerable time, as the song says, the only way
is up!
July/August 2009 Mortgage Introducer www.mortgageintroducer.com
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