24
Feb
Scottish mortgage market 'picking up'
The mortgage market in Scotland is recovering, new figures
suggest.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), there were
14,200 loans given for house purchases during the final quarter of
last year, worth a combined total of £1.6 billion.
This represented an increase by value of five per cent on the
previous three-month period.
Meanwhile, Scotland's share of all mortgages across the UK was
eight per cent between October and the end of December.
Responding to the findings, Kennedy Foster, Scotland policy
consultant at the CML - whose members represent around 94 per cent
of UK residential property lending - said there is unlikely to be
further increases in mortgage activity immediately.
He added: "Funding conditions remain challenging, economic recovery
is fragile both in Scotland and in the UK as a whole."
However, the situation is a considerable improvement on what
existed a year ago, he went on to suggest.
