Mortgage approvals for house purchases jump to nine-month high

The number of mortgage approvals being made to home buyers jumped to a nine-month high in June, a high street banking report has found.

Figures from UK Finance show there were 40,541 approvals for house purchase in June - the highest monthly total since September 2017.

Some 29,354 re-mortgage approvals were also made, marking a slight decrease on May, when there were 29,732 re-mortgage approvals.

Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at EY ITEM Club, said: "While housing market activity has climbed off its 2018 lows, the impression remains that the housing market it is still finding it hard to really gain traction in the face of still limited consumer purchasing power, fragile confidence and likely further gradual Bank of England interest rate rises over the coming months."

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Mortgage approvals continued to recover in June, reaching their highest level since September, but a plethora of indicators suggest that they won't rise any further."

UK Finance said credit card spending was 4.7% higher than a year earlier, with outstanding levels of card borrowing having grown by 5.6% over the year.

Outstanding overdraft borrowing was 5.8% lower compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, people have been piling more money into savings accounts which can be accessed quickly if needed.

Personal deposits have grown by 1.3% over the past 12 months, while deposits held in instant access accounts were 4.2% higher than a year earlier.

Eric Leenders, managing director, personal finance at UK Finance said: "Lending to households has continued to grow modestly in line with recent trends, with increased borrowing on credit cards mirrored by a fall in overdraft borrowing.

"Card spending saw relatively strong growth year-on-year, with retail sales buoyed by the sunshine and recent sporting events."