MNI POLICY: BOE - Mortgage Interest Rates, Approvals Fall Nov>

-MNI: BOE UK Nov House Purchase Approvals 63,728 Vs 65,726 Oct                                            

     By David Robinson and Jai Lakhani 

     LONDON (MNI) - Bank of England data showed mortgage approvals, net 

mortgage lending and average interest rates on fixed rate mortgages all 

fell in November, adding to evidence of a cooling housing market. 

     The following are key points from the November Bank of England 

Money and Credit and Bankstats data sets: 

     -The BOE Monetary Policy Committee hiked Bank Rate by 25 

basis point hike last August but the borrowing costs facing many 

mortgagees have not risen.

      The average quoted rate on two, three, five and ten year 75% 

loan-to-value mortgages declined in November from October. The average 

rate on a fixed rate two year 75% LTV was 1.74%, down from 1.79% in 

October and almost identical to the 1.73% rate last July.

      With short term fixed rate mortgages dominating UK lending 

borrowers replacing contracts they took out two or three years ago are 

finding themselves facing lower borrowing costs.

     -Mortgage approvals, a good indicator of future housing activity, 

declined to 63,728 in November from 65,726 in October, the lowest 

outturn since last April.

      With recent surveys showing mininal house price inflation the 

evidence is mounting that the housing market is cooling.

     -Net consumer credit rose to stg924 million in Novemberr from 

stg754 million in October, because of a stg100 million rise in credit 

card borrowing.

      The data show a modest rise in unsecured borrowing, which is 

unlikely to prove sustainable. 

-London newsroom: e-mail: david.robinson@marketnews.com  

[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$,MABDS$]