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Credit Crunch 'is having less of an impact in Scotland than rest of the UK'

By Jonathan Dawes, Wed 4 Jun 2008 - Published in Mortgages

Scotland's share of UK mortgages for house purchase in the first quarter of 2008 has risen to 11 per cent compared with eight per cent in the same quarter a year ago, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The organisation claims that one of the reasons the slowdown has not been as great in Scotland is that houses remain comparatively affordable and so borrowers may not have been affected as much by the tightening in lending criteria.

In the first quarter of 2008, mortgage lenders in Scotland lent borrowers an average of 2.87 times their income, compared with 3.14 in the UK as a whole.

Mortgage interest payments accounted for 16.9 per cent of the average Scottish borrowers income, compared with 18.5 per cent in the rest of the UK.

Kennedy Foster from CML said: "The Scottish government could help to underpin confidence at this uncertain time by increasing their investment in both the new-build and Open Market HomeStake schemes."

Meanwhile, figures from Fool.co.uk reveal that mortgage approvals in the UK fell for the twelfth consecutive month in April.