Mortgage borrowers are taking advantage of low interest rates to pay down their mortgage and other debt, while building up the money they hold in current accounts.
Net mortgage lending fell to £2.4bn in March, compared to £2.7bn in February and £3.4bn in March 2009, according to BBA figures. Gross mortgage lending picked up marginally to £8.7bn for the month, but remained lower than the six-month average of £9.2bn. In total, 34,905 mortgages were approved during the month which is a 20% increase on March 2009. The average homeloan was 11.8% bigger than a year ago. The BBA said the fall in net lending had been influenced by "stronger than usual" mortgage repayments "as banks actively encouraged borrowers to use surplus cash to reduce their bor...
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