UK suffers from lack of lending

  A dearth of new lending to UK property has left Savills’s lenders list for the quarter unchanged for the first time in a decade.   “The last quarter has seen limited new lending activity with no direct evidence to suggest new trends emerging,” said William Newsom, Savills’ UK head of valuation. “If this continues, we may find a number of banks withdrawing or downscaling activity, but the only evidence of this at the present time is anecdotal.”   Acknowledging the volatility in Europe over the last quarter, Newsom said: “Once the way forward is clearer, I am expecting some of the Eurozone lenders to be replaced by UK lenders (despite the Vickers report) and others by insurance companies benefiting from Solvency II.”   Currently 12 of the top 16 lenders are from the Eurozone.   The 16 most active bigger ticket lenders – defined as those that in June 2011 were both actively seeking and achieving new lending over the previous six months of at least £75m in typical loan sizes of above £20m – are: Aareal Aviva Barclays Bayern LB Deka Bank Deutsche Bank Deutsche Hypo Deutsche Pfandbrief Eurohypo Helaba ING REF Landesbank Berlin Met Life Royal Bank of Scotland Santander Société Générále   Newsom said there were also increasing signs of activity from lenders such as Handlesbanken, Clydesdale, Coutts, HSBC and Nationwide Building Society.   Damian.wild@estatesgazette.com