After finance minister Rishi Sunak extended a tax cut for property purchases, British mortgage lending showed the biggest net increase on record. The Bank of England data stated that the Mortgage borrowing rose by a net 11.8 billion pounds ($16.4 billion). This is the biggest increase since the series began in April 1993.
British lenders approved 82,735 mortgages. Britain’s housing market rebounded strongly after this pandemic lockdown. Sunak announced that he was extending the cut in stamp duty land tax for buyers. The first 500,000 pounds of any property purchase in England or Northern Ireland will remain exempt from stamp duty until the end of June, and there will be a 250,000 pound tax-free allowance until the end of September.
Unsecured lending to consumers was 8.6% lower than in March 2020. Mortgage lender Nationwide said that British house prices jumped by 2.1% in April and this is their biggest monthly rise in more than 17 years. A net repayment of 0.5 billion pounds in March 2021 was smaller than the average repayment of 1.9 billion pounds over the past year.
