Is the UK mortgage market going to recover in 2009?

The British government wants the mortgage lending market to recover in 2009 but is this going to happen? In an article for Money Marketing the Charcol technical manager Ray Boulger proposes that Northern Rock, the mortgage bank nationalised by the government, could suspend or reduce the repayments made on the loan made by the Bank of England. This loan stood at £26.9bn at the end of 2007. The move would reduce
the pressure, which is contracting the mortgage market in Britain.
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It is funny that the British government wants to have lending levels set at 2007 levels but it seems that it does not want to influence Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, which are under its control. I suppose the comment by B & B boss Richard Pym
that the buy-to-let market is dead can be viewed as not helpful.

Mortgage broker John Charcol is restructuring.

Moneymarketing.co.uk reports John Charcol is restructuring. The UK broker is to reveal redundancies later and for instance, the Birmingham branch was closed recently. Redundancies are to be confirmed later and technical manager Katie Tucker
has already left.

I suppose this shows the painful adjustment being experienced by companies in the UK housing sector.

When will the credit crunch be over?

In the United Kingdom there have been a range of forecasts on
when the credit crunch will be over. We seem to be a bit behind
of the United States, which apparently is in recession according
to some pundits.

However, Money Marketing has cited Ray Boulger, technical manager
at John Charcol, who says the housing market figures are not that bad
in reality. For March, Boulger noted that the real fall in house
prices was 0.1 per cent according to the Nationwide. However, this
fall was seasonally adjusted to 0.6 per cent.

Perhaps the UK economy will escape a recession but the performance of the
housing market will be key. The government has not helped by increasing
taxes. Housing minister Caroline Flint was photographed with a briefing
document forecasting a 2008 decline of 5 per cent to 10 per cent
at best.

The Bank of England governor Mervyn King has more or less stated
that he will not reduce interest rates in the short term.