Figures released by the British Bankers Association (BBA) show nearly a 40% drop in approvals for mortgages for new house purchases.

The BBA has recently released its mortgage lending figures for April which showed there was a slight increase in mortgages for house purchases in April, up from 35,546 in March to 38,704. Although a slight increase is good news for the mortgage market, the figure for April is still a massive 39.4% down when compared to the same time last year.

The BBA also looked at the amount of remortgaging that occurred in the market during April. When comparing March and April, there were 3,158 more remortgages, with the total amount up to 74,722. This figure is also a 20.3% increase on the number of remortgages in April 2007.