Here is a summary of the key changes and announcements in the mortgage market for this week.

• Gross Mortgage Lending increased in March this year by 19% from Feb 2017, and the sum of £21.4bn was lent in March. On a year to year basis, this was lower than March 2016 when there was a rush to beat the stamp duty deadline. Gross mortgage lending for the first quarter of 2017 is down, year on year, by 6%.
• Precise Mortgages have announced a ‘market leading’ 5 year fixed rate to the buy to let sector. At 2.99%, this is a 75% LTV loan as part of the range that Precise is offering to try to come up with new and improved ways of keeping the landlord market happy.
• The Council of Mortgage Lenders is pushing for a review of the 3% affordability stress test set by the Financial Policy Committee. With the housing market being squeezed from a number of directions, they consider that a sensible policy on lending would help alleviate some of the ‘blockage’ and lead to more approvals.

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