Despite the doom and gloom that has been surrounding the mortgage markets over the past year or do, recent figures have shown that there was an increase in mortgage approvals for the months of April, brightening the dark mood that has been surrounding the mortgage industry over recent months.

The British Banker’s Association has recently stated that the rate of decline in mortgage approvals for the months fell at its slowest in almost two years.

The BBA has said that the encouraging data could indicate that the mortgage and property markets are starting to stabilise to some degree after experiencing heavy declines over recent months. In March the number of mortgages approved came to 26,671.

However, this increased slightly for the month of April to 27,685. This meant that the year on year decline was 15.5 percent, which is said to be the smallest annual decline since August of 2007.

However, despite these figures some industry officials have said that the recovery of the property and mortgage markets is still a long way off, and that lending conditions were still very tight even through the base rate had fallen to the rock bottom level of 0.5 percent.

One industry expert said: “The improvement is from such a low base and the fact that approvals haven’t really increased at all this month is a worrying signal of credit conditions.”

Another economist agreed that the pick up in the property and mortgage markets was set to be a gradual one, stating: “The data reinforce our belief that the pick up in housing market activity will be gradual and fitful for some time to come given ongoing very poor economic fundamentals and still tight credit conditions.”

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