UK mortgage approvals fall 10% in November

UK mortgage approvals fell 10.6% year on year with gross mortgage lending across the residential market in November down 2% to £23.1bn, according to industry data released on Friday.

Approvals for house purchase were 1.2% lower in November, remortgage approvals fell 20.3% and approvals for other secured borrowing decreased by 12.2%, UK Finance said.

Credit card spending rose 7.5% year on year to £11.3bn. Over the past year, the outstanding level of credit card borrowing grew by 5.3%. Personal borrowing through loans and overdrafts grew by 2.5 per cent in the year to November.

Personal deposits total grew by 0.7% with deposits held in instant access accounts up 3.1%.

Eric Leenders, managing director of personal finance at UK Finance, said: “Overall mortgage borrowing across the residential property market remains stable and the trend in households' cash savings remains steady.”

Leenders said higher spending “reflects the growing use of credit cards as a preferred form of payment, particularly in travel, as consumers take advantage of stronger customer protection and value-added benefits”.