Cheap houses, rush of mortgage lending

The Council of Mortgage Lending has released its figures for gross mortgage lending for December 09 and they have taken many in the property sector by surprise. The figures showed an incredible 14% rise in mortgage lending for December, which is at best normally a poor month.
Many believe that property buyers, property traders, and buy to let investors have decided to buy in 09 to take advantage of the reduced stamp duty. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone in the mortgage market who believes that 2010 will not out perform 2009. So it will be very interesting to see January?s figures and the future path of interest rates.