Mortgage figures from the Banking and Payments Federation this week showed a solid monthly increase in the value of mortgage approvals for home purchases in July, a good time of year to get the green light for a loan if you plan an autumn purchase. First-time buyers were leading the charge in the numbers, with the value of approvals in this part of the market up by close to 30 per cent on the year.
The other thing to be observed this autumn will be how realistic asking prices are when it comes to agreeing a deal. Davy crunched some numbers on this last week, estimating that residential transactions in June and July were settled at about 2 per cent and 2.3 per cent above the asking price respectively. The broker noted that this premium was down from between 5 and 6 per cent for the same months last year, but up from 1 per cent in early 2023.