The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said UK mortgage lending increased by 14% in December compared with November, to £13.7bn and the market was entitled as being ’surprisingly strong’.

The latest figures from the CML show that UK mortgage lending was up 3% in December compared with the same month a year earlier.

A CML economist said that the December lending figure was “surprisingly strong” as seasonal factors usually meant a slowdown compared with November.

“Evidence suggests that the rise was driven by a surge in house purchase completions,” he said.

“The most likely explanation is that buyers of cheaper property wanted to complete their transactions before the end of the year to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday.”

He predicted that the mortgage market would be stronger in 2010 than in 2009.

During October around 55,300 loans were taken out for house purchases, and  approximately 19,700 first time buyers completed on their mortgages.

Can we assume from this then that the UK’s Mortgage Industry is showing signs of recovery? As the number of UK mortgages advanced to people buying a home reached its highest level since December 2007, should we start to feel a little more safer?

Sure we have a long way to go yet the future is starting to look rosier.

Some might say ‘about time too…’

During the 2007 housing boom, 23% of mortgages were based on self certification, so called ‘liar loans’, and managed to shore up bad debt within the UK Mortage Industry.

But on Monday the FSA announced plans to ensure that strict vetting is to be brought into place and all incomes are to be verified, unlike previous self cert mortgages.

This can only be a good thing right? You should only borrow what you can comfortably afford to repay? I would think this goes without saying, but with so many of us eager to climb the property ladder has a little lie here and there really hurt?

Looking at the state of the UK’s financial markets today and subsequently its sub prime mortgage industry, I would agree that yes, and not before time.

The Woolwich, Northern Rock and Abbey have reduced their mortgage rates but at what price? Yes, respectively, they are offering rates of between 2.79% and 3.88% but only if you have a whopping 30% deposit.

Looking at it head on the reduction in UK mortgage rates is very competitive and very interesting,
the situation is slightly different when you look at the deposits required. All of the companies in
question would require new mortgage customers to lay down a 30% minimum deposit on their new home to
be able to discuss the lower rates announced today. So again another letdown in the UK mortgage
market with UK banks and UK mortgage providers accused of manipulating customers to increase demand before
reducing overall mortgage rates.

Without a reduction in UK mortgage rates there will be no recovery in the UK property market and ultimately
it will be a lose-lose situation for financial companies and property owners in the UK. When will UK banks
and UK mortgage providers wake up to this fact?

House prices in the UK continued to rise for a fifth consecutive month in September. But how easy is it to still obtain a mortgage?

The price of a typical home rose 0.9% in September to just under £162,000, which are broadly in line with prices in September last year.

In August, prices rose 1.4% from a month earlier and were 2.7% lower on the year.

Economists were expecting a 0.7% monthly gain and 0.3% drop in annual terms in September.

Much has been speculated with regard to the upcoming surge of ‘Accidental Landlords‘.The downturn in the housing market over the last two years has prompted many home movers to let their old properties out rather than sell.

The surge in so-called ‘accidental landlords’ has limited the supply of property in the sales market and increased the stock of homes available to let.

Over recent months the increase in ‘accidental landlords’ seems to have tapered off, which may indicate that some of this elevated rental supply is returning to the sales market, with possible negative implications for house prices.

One of the country’s leading entrepreneurs has launched a multi-million pound facility to kick-start the housing market - and estate agents will be at the heart of the solution.

Dragon’s Den star James Caan, famous for using his own money to give fledgling businesses a foothold onto the first rungs of commercial life, now wants to help ordinary people climb the property ladder.

Caan is backing a funding package to take the pain out of buying and selling a home. The fund will offer interest-free loans to cover unavoidable costs such as Stamp Duty and legal fees, which is a multi billion pound market.

Access to the loans will be through a network of carefully selected estate agents across the UK. Caan claimed the scheme is all about getting liquidity back into the property market.

The Bank of England kept the benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent this month and extended its asset-purchase program to help pull Britain out of its worst recession in a generation.

U.K. house prices rose at their fastest pace in more than 2 1/2 years in August as low interest rates spurred demand and a lack of properties for sale underpinned values.

The increase in house prices this month was the fourth in succession, leaving them over 3 percent higher than at the end of 2008, according to a UK Building Society. In the three months through August, they rose by an average of 3.3 percent from the previous period, the most since February 2007.

Britain’s six biggest banks approved more home loans in July, a sample from the Bank of England’s lending panel showed on Aug. 20. U.K. mortgage approvals rose in July to the highest level since February 2008.

The average cost of a home climbed 1.6 percent, the most since December 2006, to 160,224 pounds. Economists predicted an increase of 0.5 percent, according to the median of 17 forecasts in a survey. From a year earlier, prices fell 2.7 percent.

The entire world began to feel a financial crisis in the summer of 2008. While some people claim to have predicted it to happen, and those of us working within the mortgage industry knew eventually the bottom would fall out, we do not think the world was ready for the rapid decline that happened.

It is a proven fact that banks are not lending money to individuals for mortgages at the level they were a year ago. In addition to a lack of lending, there are also fewer products available in the consumer mortgage market. The positive news for the short term is that those people who have a variable rate mortgage have seen their mortgage bill drop, as the Bank of England has currently set the rate at an all time low of 0.5%. While this is bad news for those hoping to earn interest from savings, it is positive news for those with a variable rate mortgage.

To make matters worse, the press and the media continue to harp on about the Credit Crunch. The media continues to print gloom and doom stories that do nothing more than paint the bleakest picture imaginable, no matter if they are factually true or not. The worst part of the situation is that consumer confidence is based around what is read in the newspapers and what is seen on TV. The media is one of the only ways that people not directly involved in the credit crisis gets information on the state of the economy. Misleading information can be the route of serious consumer doubt, which only hurts the economy more.

Research recently carried out by Moneyextra has revealed that 595,000 Brits are looking to downsize within the next six months.

The research also revealed that over one million people in the UK are currently looking to make the most of falling prices and buy a property.

When looking at the typical house price of an average first-time buyer property (£130,000), monthly repayments can come in as low as £592.92, making this an affordable opportunity for many currently renting.

For those‘downsizing’, Moneyextra found that extending the term of the mortgage and downsizing from a £200,000 mortgage on a £250,000 property to a £144,000 mortgage on a £180,000 property, could save as much as £555 per month on monthly repayments as well as freeing up some additional capital.

Richard Mason, managing director at Moneyextra, said: “Our research shows that while 4% of homeowners are considering a move to a smaller property, a staggering 8% of homeowners are ignorant to the current economic conditions and still don’t know what to do. The UK needs a wake-up call. Homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments need to take their heads out of the sand or potentially face repossession.

“We’re urging people not to close their eyes to the opportunities and risks out there. There are still plenty of deals to choose from and significant savings can be made from downsizing. Our analysis shows that people who are struggling with their outgoings need to act fast - if they do so then collectively they could save nearly a third of a billion pounds every month - more than £550 each. Those looking to downsize now are making the right decision - move before you get into any serious difficulty to avoid the danger of repossession.”