The Council of Mortgage Lenders saw growth returning in the later part of 2011, with a year on year rise in November for only the second time in the year.

Loans for house purchase was up 4% to 47,000 against October – which represented a 5% increase in value.

Year on Year this represented a 3% rise compared to November 2010 – again representing a 5% rise in value. The total value of the loans was £6.9 billion.

Remortgaging had a similar increase with 31,200 loans, and increase of 6% over the month and 2% over the year. The total value of those loans was £4 billion.

First Time Buyers

With the Bank of England interest rates remaining at their record lows, first time buyers continued to see the proportion of their income accounted for by mortgage payments decline – now 12.2% in November compared to 13% last year and 12.3% in October.

With the overall loans for house purchase, first time buyers took 17,300 loans, worth £2.1 billion.

Mortgage Preferences

Fixed rate mortgages increased in popularity again and now at their highest in more than two years – 65% of all borrowers took out a fixed rate. This might have been spurred by the chances of a increase in interest rates in 2012 increasing.

Repayment mortgages continue to be the preference for the vast majority – 98% of first time buyers (up from 97%), 83% of movers (up from 82%) and 79% of remortgagers (up from 77%).

CML director general Paul Smee commented:

A rise in mortgage lending towards the end of 2011 is a welcome indicator for the industry considering confidence has been weak due to fragile economies both at home and in the Eurozone. We should expect a further increase in first-time buyer activity over the next few months as they push through their purchases to take advantage of the stamp duty concession before it ends in March.