Lending volumes appear to be stabilizing in the United Kingdom, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), London.
Gross U.K. mortgage lending totaled an estimated 10.3 billion pounds ($16.8 billion) in May, down slightly from 10.5 billion pounds ($17.1 billion) in April and down 58% from the same month a year ago.
"Lending volumes appear to have stabilized at extremely low levels, but the weak labor market and lenders' limited access to funding will constrain activity for some time yet," said CML economist Paul Samter.
He said it is likely that there was a "moderate improvement" in purchase lending during May but that the total gross lending figure declined because this was offset by "very low" refinance volumes
