According to recent reports, mortgage levels in the UK have tumbled below the level of the 1990s crash in house prices . The collapse of the property market, long rumoured, is supported by Council of Mortgage Lenders figures.
In the first three months of 2008, the CML say, just 142,000 mortgages for house purchase were approved. During the property slump in the early 1990s, 146,000 mortgages were approved in the first few months of 1992.
The tumbling level of mortgage approvals indicates that tightened lending criteria has now pushed the property market into a slump. House prices, recorded in major surveys, appear to be dropping as a result.
For first-time buyers, the breath of fresh air that falling prices could represent is being cut off by very strict lending criteria, keeping many out of the market.
