Early April has yielded a bit more confidence with the G20 summit and lending figures suggesting that the worst is over.  The news that February saw a rise of 19% in mortgage acceptance equating to around £250m was released at the same time 20 of the world leaders were to arrive in London to hopefully agree the way forward in terms of lending and working together during this financial crisis.

The feedback from the media was good even with attempts from demonstrators to mare the conference. Although not achieving everything, most financial advisers felt they could see improvements and confidence for the future, with estimates of later his year before real lending would start again.

The Bank of England kept the lending rates at .5% although it was hard to see why they would take them down to zero. Most mortgage lenders have significantly reduced their rates, although they are still around 3% above the base rate. Never mind though, these are still cheap mortgages if you can get one.

Rumours are also around that Northern Rock are about to offer 90% mortgages and Halifax may lend 100% for certain customers, we have yet to see the customer base this would apply to, but it is unlikely to be open to everyone and may be for existing customers within certain credit limits only.

There was even a small rise in house prices during February, suggesting that we are at the lowest price level. There has never been doubt that there has been a demand for homes, it has been the lack of mortgages that has brought home prices down to the level they are now.
Under normal circumstance, the lighter nights would stimulate the house buying market, so this news may have also come just at the right time, when families get in their cars and drive around the estates to see what property is available.

It is early days and we should not assume there will not be a dip at some point, or that recovery will be swift. But with banks being pretty much protected from any circumstances of bad lending, there does not seem any logical reason not to offer more mortgages and kick start this economy again.