UK housing market 'more positive'

The UK housing market should "feel more stable and positive" in 2013, lenders said today, as they published figures showing that the number of first-time buyer mortgages advanced in October was a fifth higher than a year ago.

Some 20,000 loans were advanced to first-time buyers in October worth £2.5bn (€3.1bn), which also represented a 14% month-on-month increase, the UK's Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said.