Remortgage lending approvals had a strong January post, proving once more that the UK housing market is continuing to be resilient beyond many forecasts and expectations. According to the latest BBA banking data, remortgage approvals totaled almost 16% higher during the first month of the year than the same time last year. Remortgage has an excellent forecast moving forward, at least in the short term before interest rates are hiked.

Remortgage approvals were not the only sector posting a better than average increase over the same time last year. Gross mortgage lending was also significantly higher than the same time last year. In fact, this January gross lending was more than 6% higher than in 2016.

Brian Murphy, Head of Lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau, commented on the latest data, saying: “House purchase approval numbers, whilst 2.5% lower than in January 2016, need to be viewed in context, given that the first quarter of 2016 was exceptionally busy and should be considered in the context that twelve months ago many landlords and second home borrowers had brought forward intended transactions following the Autumn Statement of 2015 to avoid the rise in SDLT at the end of March 2016.”

Murphy added: "Homeowners are continuing to take advantage of ultra-low mortgage rates with remortgaging approvals up 15.7% when compared with January 2016, which could be as a result of homeowners being keen to fix what is potentially their biggest element of committed monthly expenditure, in a period of rising inflation and wider economic uncertainty."