A recent report has suggested that the ongoing mortgage freeze, which erupted with the onset of the global credit crunch last summer, could continue for some time to come, with some industry officials suggesting that the mortgage freeze could last two years or more. The data came in a report from the former chairman of HBOS, Sir James Crosby, who stated that the shortage of mortgage products and reduced access to mortgage loans will go into 2009 and even 2010.
Since the onset of the global credit crunch the mortgage industry has all but ground to a halt, with mortgage lenders taking many mortgage products off the market, reducing access to many other mortgage products, and tightening lending conditions to the point where many people are simply unable to get their hands on a mortgage, which in turn has affected the level of housing sales in the UK, which has plummeted.
Sir James Crosby has been appointed by the government to look into how liquidity can be increased in the wholesale mortgage money lending industry, and although the Bank of England has already launched a £50 billion mortgage rescue plan recently it is thought that this is likely to take a fair amount of time to kick in. Crosby’s report is expected to provide recommendations on how the mortgage funding markets can be improved later this year in the autumn.
However, ministers have been told by the Council of Mortgage Lenders that they will need to act quickly in order to bring any stability to the mortgage lending sector. The CML has warned that there is more trouble to come in the mortgage and housing markets, with mortgage lending levels set to fall by 50% this year.
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20 Aug, 2008