Homeowner ambitions to move up the housing ladder are being curtailed by negative equity, new mortgage figures suggest.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders in
Northern Ireland,
just 800 loans were given to borrowers moving house in the first
quarter of this year, down from 900 in the first quarter of 2012 and 900
in the fourth quarter of last year.
CML said lending to
first-time buyers and those looking to remortgage also fell in the first
quarter, though that reflected seasonal trends, according to the
council.
Around 1,200 loans were advanced to first-time buyers in
Northern Ireland in the first quarter, a seasonal drop of 14% compared
to the fourth quarter of last year and a fall of 8% compared to the
first quarter of 2012.
Average house prices have slumped around
56% from their peak of around £240,000 in 2007 – and while good news for
first-time buyers, the falls were not helping potential home-movers.
A
spokesman for the CML said: "While steeper house price falls in
Northern Ireland have helped first-time buyer activity, home movers have
seen a reduction in their housing equity, decreasing the deposit
available to them to put towards a higher-priced property further up the
housing ladder."
Just 40% of home purchase loans in Northern
Ireland in the first quarter of the year were for home movers, compared
to 56% in the UK overall.
Ulster
Bank chief economist Richard Ramsey pointed out that at 1,000, the
quarter had seen the lowest number of remortgages since CML remortgage
data began in 2005. That compared with a quarterly peak of 8,700 in the
second quarter of 2007, when house prices were also peaking.
Mr Ramsey said: "This is not really surprising given the average house price falls of 55%+ that have already occurred.
"For
many households this has significantly eroded the equity previously
held within a property. As a result, many households are not in a
position to remortgage their home to fund improvements or extensions or
they are reluctant to do so."
Home-movers were not reaping any
benefit from the activity at the bottom of the market, he said,
suggesting first-time buyers were buying new-builds.
The
fall on the same period one year ago could also be due in part to the
end of the stamp duty holiday in March last year, CML said.
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