News In Focus
25 February 2010
Number of mortgages in Scotland at record low last year
The number of mortgages taken out in Scotland last year was the lowest since records began in 1993, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
However, there was a small increase in the number of mortgages taken out in the final three months of last year.
The council said just 47,000 home loans were granted in Scotland in 2009, 23% fewer than in 2008. Between October and December, 14,200 loans were issued – up 4% on the previous quarter and 2,600 more than the same time in 2008 – but that rate of increase was slower than the 9% rise recorded in the rest of the UK.
The slower recovery in Scotland meant that its share of the UK home loans market fell to 9% for 2009 as a whole, down from a high of 12% in 2008.
The number of first-time buyers in Scotland was unchanged at 5,400 in the fourth quarter, although the value of lending increased in the last three months from £474m to £479m.
Throughout 2009, 17,900 first-time buyers took out a loan, down 4,500 on the previous year and also the lowest since the CML began compiling the data.
In line with the rest of the UK, remortgaging volumes remained low in Scotland.
There were 9,000 remortgage loans, worth £900m, between October and December, a drop of 1,000 on the previous three months.
For the whole of 2009, there were 39,000 loans for remortgage, almost half the number in 2008.
The council said it did not expect an increase in lending activity immediately.
CML Scotland policy consultant Kennedy Foster said: "Funding conditions remain challenging, economic recovery is fragile both in Scotland and in the UK as a whole, and with little likelihood of interest rates rising this side of an election, many on low variable rates have little incentive to remortgage."