Although mortgage approvals fell last year to an estimated 1.2m in total, applications bounced up by a third. In London, mortgage applications almost doubled.
The claims are made in a new joint report by Mortgage Advice Bureau and Coreco.
However, the report does not say how many of these applications were rejected. If correct, the report shows the huge scale of pent-up demand for mortgage finance.
Last year’s UK total of 1.2m mortgage approvals was down from 1.3m in 2009, and included just 575,000 mortgages for purchase. But according to MAB, applications rose by over 33%.
The new MAB/Coreco report does, however, say that nationally, the average LTV on purchase mortgage applications last year was 69.5% and that the average loan size requested was £126,888.
In terms of the type of mortgage people applied for, 58.5% of borrowers wanted fixed rate deals.
The average loan size of remortgage applications was £143,174.
In London, the report says mortgage applications (for both purchase and remortgage) went up 88.6% compared to 2009.
The average LTV being sought on purchase applications was 66%, down from 67.6% in 2009, while the average loan size being sought was £217,419 – up 18.4% from 2009. On the remortgage size, the average LTV sought was 51%.
Andrew Montlake, director of London-based independent mortgage broker Coreco Group, said: “Mortgage lending continues to be a drag on both house prices and turnover as lenders appear to be holding back as they try to pre-empt regulation from the FSA and their Mortgage Market Review.”
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