Remortgaging rises 17% in May

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has released its regulated mortgage survey results for May, showing that remortgaging grew by 17 per cent compared to the same month of 2005.

Compared to April, remortgage deals increased by 25 per cent from 80,000 to 99,000 in May, an amount which accounted for 38 per cent of all loans – a two per cent increase on April.

This increase in remortgaging was partly attributed to the refinancing of a number of fixed-rate deals that are coming to an end.

Fixed-rate offers proved to be continually popular in May, accounting for 72 per cent of all mortgages – 16 per cent higher than 2005.

“The robust growth of remortgaging and lending for house purchase in May reflect a growing and stable market. All the signs are that this will continue, although maybe at a slower rate,” said Michael Coogan, director general of the CML.

“Lending to home-buyers and home-movers is strong and today’s data reverses the dip in lending to these groups we witnessed in April.”

An annual increase of 13 per cent was also seen in overall lending for regular house purchase in May, with loans to first-time buyers rising by seven per cent and mortgages going to home-movers increasing by 16 per cent.