Mortgage lending up on last year

Mortgage lending is higher year-on-year for the seventh month in a row as first-time buyers race to take advantage of a stamp-duty concession before it ends.

About £10.7 billion was lent in February, a 14% rise on the same month in 2011, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said, with the two-year stamp-duty holiday for first-time buyers purchasing homes worth between £125,000 and £250,000 ending on Saturday.