This year has been a terrible year for the housing and home owner loan markets and although the figures for numbers of new loans and property sales has increased over the course of the year, the overall figures are still pitifully low compared with even just a year ago.

The amount of gross lending on home owner loans throughout the month of November was £9.2 billion and although this shows an increase form the previous month, it is still 12 per cent lower than it was at the same time last year.

These are the latest figures to come from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), who have also said that they believe we will not see any realistic increase in growth above current levels in the near future. The annual rate of growth of 4.7 per cent for new home owner loans is well above the October figure which is just 0.8 per cent.

The BBA also said that one of the main reasons for the lack of growth is due to the lack of activity in the remortgage loan market, as borrowers remain on their existing lenders standard variable rate loan.

David Dooks of the BBA said “Household priorities are showing up in the November figures. Demand for new personal loans was weak and people are paying off debt or building savings in response to economic circumstances. In the housing sector, prices have continued to edge up and approvals for house purchase are now back at a similar level to that of two years ago.

Remortgaging activity continues to run at a low level as borrowers revert to low standard variable rates or trackers from maturing fixed rate loans. Lending to non financial companies ticked up slightly in November, having declined in each of the previous two months.”