Drop in mortgage approvals in October

This figure is also a drop on the 69,489 seen in October last year and was below the six-month average of 66,000. Responding to this, Benham and Reeves director Marc von Grundherr said that, while these figures are “no cause for celebration”, there’s no cause for alarm either.  

He added: “The decline seen is almost certainly a consequence of a disastrous mini budget which still lingers in the air while the market seeks to navigate multiple challenges. But we must factor in seasonality too whereby mortgage applications always begin to reduce at the onset of winter.”  

Barrows and Forrester managing director James Forrester added: “The decline in approvals and monies actually lent is the latest dent to property market sentiment and is almost certainly down to a government that will be heavily featured on Santa’s naughty list this year.  

“However, we also need to remember that the decline towards pre-pandemic normality is expected and in part due to the influence of a seasonal market slow down. Armageddon this is not.” 

In addition to this, the Bank of England’s latest money and credit figures highlighted how net borrowing of mortgage debt decreased from £5.9bn to £4bn. This is the lowest level since November 2021 – when this figure hit £3.8bn.  

Gross lending, however, increased by £1bn – going from £27.2bn to £28.2bn, while gross repayments went up from £21.5bn to £24.8bn.  

The effective interest rate, meanwhile, on newly drawn mortgages increased by 25 basis points to 3.09% in October with the rate on the outstanding stock mortgages increasing by five basis points to 2.29%.