Released on = May 4, 2007, 4:06 am

Press Release Author = Charlotte Burrows

Industry = Real Estate

Press Release Summary = Mortgage demand is set to dwindle following recent interest
rate rises and the prospect of further hikes, it has been alleged, says National
Homebuyers.

Press Release Body =

Although a survey by the Building Societies Association (BSA) has revealed net
lending by building societies in the first quarter of 2007 was almost double that of
the first quarter of 2006 - £4,381 million compared with £2,163 million - a
different picture is painted when seasonal adjustments are taken into account.

\"Yet again building societies saw record lending in March, with gross lending the
highest ever recorded for that month. Approvals were also the highest for any March
since 1988,\" Adrian Coles, director general of the BSA, confirmed.

\"However, lending may be beginning to cool. We usually see lending picking up in
March, but when the seasonal variation is removed from the figures, the £4,830
million of loans approved in March is more than 12 per cent below the average for
the prior three months.\"

As a result, Mr Coles expects mortgage lending growth to decelerate in the future,
while he also speculated that another rate increase in May would exacerbate this
trend.

Julian King, director of National Homebuyers, the UK\'s leading homebuyer service,
says: \"This is the beginning of the end of the boom time in property prices in all
areas throughout the UK.

\"As mortgage rates rise we are predicting a sharp fall in prices which we will all
see happening very quickly.

\"The confidence in the market has been unsure for sometime and people will be hurt
by the ongoing \'cooling\' and ultimate downturn in the property market.\"

Web Site = http://www.nationalhomebuyers.co.uk/newsarticle.asp?ID

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