Net mortgage approvals for house purchases have fallen for a fourth consecutive month in April, new figures published by the Bank of England (BoE) have indicated.

Approvals declined by 3,100 compared to March’s total, to reach 60,500 in April.

By contrast, the BoE’s data revealed that approvals for remortgaging – which only captures those remortgaging with a different lender – registered an increase in April, jumping by 1,600 to total 35,300. This followed an increase of 1,000 in March.

The BoE’s latest Money and Credit report for April also showed that net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals decreased by £13.7bn in April, to dip into negative territory at -£800m. This followed a £9.7bn in net borrowing in March, when the figure stood at around £13bn.

Head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, Sarah Coles, commented that the “post-stamp-duty-holiday slump continued into April”, with the fourth month of falls in the number of mortgages approved for purchases.

“This is despite the fact that mortgage rates had been dropping for months,” Coles highlighted. “These loans will feed into sales figures in the next few months, so signs of strength in May could peter out before the summer settles in.

“The fact that mortgage rates have fallen again since April could help turn things around for the property market. However, more recent rises in gilt yields are likely to mean the best deals are taken off the table in the coming days. It means anyone planning a purchase in the near future might want to secure a deal sooner rather than later.”

CEO of specialist lender Octane Capital, Jonathan Samuels, added: “A month-on-month reduction in mortgage approvals was always on the cards in April, as the market paused for breath following a period of heightened activity driven by the rush to beat another stamp duty deadline.

“However, we’ve since seen a surge of buyer activity from those who have been waiting for the dust to settle and this renewed activity has only intensified since the Bank of England cut interest rates to 4.25% at the beginning of May.

“As a result, we can expect to see mortgage approvals levels trend upward over the coming months as business resumes as normal.”

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