Mortgage Lending Highs
JANUARY 18TH, 2007
| Credit Cards (introductory rate & period) |
Typical APR | Options |
| Virgin Credit Card 0% balance transfers, 13 months ( 2.9% balance transfer fee ) 0% purchases, 3 months |
15.9% (variable) |
 |
| Post Office Credit Card 0% balance transfers, 8 months ( 2.5% balance transfer fee ) 0% purchases, 3 months |
14.9% (variable) |
|
| Personal Loans | Typical APR | Options |
| Moneyback Bank Personal Loan | 5.7% | |
| Northern Rock Personal Loan | 5.8% | |
Mortgage lending fell 10% in December, but was still at record levels for the month, figures showed.
Homebuyers borrowed £29.4bn from banks, building societies and specialist firms, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said in its monthly report.
This compares with £33.1bn in November, and is 8.8% higher than December 2005.
The CML predicted that high prices and demand for homes would continue and that mortgage lending would top the £346bn that was borrowed in 2006.
That figure was 20% up on the figures for 2005.
Cooling off
However the CML added that the latest interest rate hike may deter some would-be homeowners from getting onto the property ladder.
Earlier this week, the CML said that first-time home buyers in the UK were borrowing an average of £113,887 to pay for their first properties - equivalent to 3.29 times their incomes.
The latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report said the market was now starting to cool down, largely as a result of rate rises imposed late in 2006.
