Pound Falls on UK Mortgage Approvals

The Pound has fallen sharply this morning, leading to worse exchange rates for those of you buying property overseas.

Bank of England figures, out this morning, show that UK mortgage approvals are still falling – despite aggressive interest rate cuts and government encouragement for more lending in the sector.

Only 32,000 mortgages were approved in October, down 1,000 on September’s figure. Approvals have slumped by 74% in the last year.

For overseas money transfers, for example if you are buying a holiday property, this is further bad news for already poor exchange rates. It means that interest rates are likely to be cut even further to help stimulate the UK economy – and lower interest rates mean less demand for the Pound, which falls in value.

Although the European Central Bank (ECB) are also likely to cut interest rates on Thursday, the developing picture is that the UK economy is in a worse state than most of Europe – and therefore I would not be surprised if we currently have the best exchange rates available for some time to come.

If you need to buy or sell any currency, make sure you contact a specialist foreign exchange company, who will help you through these volatile times.