Mortgage approvals in the U.K. fell last month to an 18-month low, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
U.K. lenders granted 44,192 home loans in June, down from 50,544 in May. This follows a Hometrack Ltd. report that U.K. home values were down in July, for the first time in seven months. Samuel Tombs, an economist at capital Economics Ltd. in London, says these figures ‘suggest that the financial sector is acting as an increasing drag on the economic recovery.’
‘The low level of consumer confidence and recent tightening of credit conditions suggest that approvals are likely to remain depressed in the second half of this year,’ Tombs adds.