Mortgage lending:THE NUMBER of loans taken out by people to buy a house in the North fell to a six-year low of 8,800 in 2011 or £850 million in value according to new figures released today by the UK's Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

This is in stark contrast to the total value of loans agreed during the height of the North’s short-lived property boom which totalled £2.97 billion in 2006. According to the CML local first-time buyers accounted for the majority of loans agreed last year, 4,900 in total with a value of £400 million. The latest industry figures from the CML, the trade association for the UK’s residential mortgage lending industry, also show that there were 7,200 home loans remortgaged in the North last year. But the CML’s research does suggest that Northern Ireland was the only region in the UK to report an increase in the number of house purchase loans in the final quarter of last year. Derek Wilson, chair of the CML in Northern Ireland, said the increase in house purchase loans at the close of 2011 were a “much-needed confidence boost” for the depressed property market.