Mortgage approvals fell in December, housing market recovery fragile

According to the BoE’s figures the number of mortgage approvals fell from 60,045 in November to 50,023. Approvals for re-mortgaging rose from 25,619 in November to 27,276.

Analysts had been expecting to see a rise in mortgage approvals in December to around 61,000.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has said that they expect house prices to rise in the first half of 2010. However the crawling pace of recovery, exposed by last week’s news that Britain exited recession on the back of just 0.1 per cent GDP growth in Q4 2009, is likely to see house prices stagnate and even fall in the second half of 2010 as consumers struggle to afford new homes.