The company clocked up a total of £70 million in loan applications during February 2005, a year on year increase of 51 per cent.
These figures contrast with those just released from Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) which claims that "total gross lending in February remained flat at £17.2 billion and virtually unchanged from January's figure of £17.3 billion and 18 per cent lower than in February last year." [Source: www.cml.org.uk ]
BuildStore's founder and Chief Executive, Raymond Connor believes that in part, the rise in its mortgage business is connected to Britons' fascination with property and home improvement shows on television. He says, "Four or five years ago, we were a nation obsessed with cooking and celebrity chefs. Now, there are hundreds of programmes across terrestrial and cable networks that offer how-to's on self build and renovation. I believe this has had a direct impact upon the industry with people really seeing the opportunities and just going for it."
