Mortgage approvals hit five-year high

The number of new mortgages being advanced has reached the highest monthly figure for five years, financialreporter.co.uk reports.
According to chartered surveyor e.surv's latest 'Mortgage Monitor', some 71,920 property house purchases were approved during November, making it the best month since January 2008.
Even though 2013 isn't yet over, the figures have meant that it has already broken all records since 2008, with December's figures still to be added on top. Just on a year-by-year basis, the increase in lending was at 34 per cent.
Elsewhere, e.surv found that some 9,493 high-LTV mortgages (those which required 15 per cent deposits or smaller) were approved in November, which is twice as many as those which were offered during the same period last year. This figure also represents the best results seen in around five years.
The total number of mortgages offered, meanwhile, stood at 53,539.
Commenting on the results, e.surv director Richard Sexton told introducertoday.co.uk: "Between the tail end of the summer and this autumn, lenders tapped the FLS [Funding for Lending scheme] for almost £6 billion worth of funds, and that honeypot is now filtering through to homeowners, in the form of more loans and cheaper rates.
"Despite the changes to FLS, the mortgage market will continue to thrive. FLS spurred a limping market into action at the beginning this year, but since then Help to Buy has taken the lead in driving the market forwards. Positivity is sweeping through the economy and encouraging more prospective homebuyers to the market."