UK Mortgage lending drops 60%

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - British gross mortgage lending fell 60 percent from a year ago in February to 9.9 billion pounds ($14.10 billion), the lowest since February 2001, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said on Thursday.
The 15 percent monthly fall from January's figure of 11.7 billion pounds was much bigger than the 3-4 percent decline the CML said the market usually experiences at that time of year.
But the CML said February's number was in line with its forecast for 145 billion pounds of lending in 2009 as a whole.
Analysts expect the housing market, gripped by the credit crunch, to remain weak for some time.
"Housing market activity and prices remain under serious downward pressure from the awful economic climate and ongoing low mortgage availability," said Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight.
"We continue to expect house prices to fall by 15 percent overall in 2009 and then dip by a further 5 percent in the first half of 2010 before stabilizing. This would take them some 35 percent below their 2007 peak levels."

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