Are Low Deposit Mortgages Propping Up The Housing Market?

The number of people buying houses with low-value deposits has risen by 7.3 per cent in the last year, according to data analysis by chartered surveyors e.surv. Lending to borrowers who have only small deposits (15 per cent or less of the property’s value) accounted for 16.3 per cent of house purchases in April, up 1.4 percentage points from the same month last year (14.9 per cent). The number of house purchase approvals was a shade over 62,000 in April, a 1.9 per cent drop on April 2014. This is the lowest the (seasonally adjusted) figure has been for a long time, partly due to Mortgage Market Review (MMR) restrictions, with the last six months’ figures implying that growth could return soon. Read more on the City A.M. website.