UK July mortgage approvals 56.05k vs 59.50k expectedPrior 58.20k; revised to 58.21kUK July net consumer credit £2.0 billion vs £1.8 billion expectedPrior £1.81 billion; revised to £1.86 billion
Net mortgage approvals were seen falling in July to 56,100, and that is well below the previous 6-month average of 60,800.
Adding to that, the net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals decreased to £4.3 billion in July – down from £7.7 billion in June. That figure is also now falling below the previous 6-month average of £5.3 billion.
So, that marks a considerable slowdown in mortgage borrowing as the market loses some momentum.
Meanwhile, net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals did increase slightly to £2.0 billion in July. The breakdown this time shows that consumers weren’t necessarily putting much more on credit cards (£0.9 billion). Instead, more borrowing came from things like car finance and personal loans (£1.1 billion).
All in all, this points to some softening in housing demand but consumer borrowing is still relatively resilient. In other words, UK households became more cautious about borrowing to buy homes, but continued borrowing for other purchases.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.