Mortgage supply falls to two year low

Data from the Bank of England has shown lending to home buyers has fallen to its lowest level in two years suppressed by the strict regulations that now govern mortgage applications. The BoE’s Credit Conditions Survey showed that for the third quarter of 2014, lenders reported the biggest fall in the amount of credit they were able to supply since the last three months of 2008. This was due to reduced risk appetite and concerns about the outlook for house prices, and came shortly after regulators required them to impose tighter affordability checks on new borrowers. Many lenders noted that operational issues associated with the implementation of the Mortgage Market Review had pushed down on credit availability over the summer," the Credit Conditions survey read. However, the report showed that the banks and building societies expect lending to return to healthier levels in the next three months.