Home movers in Scotland in the second quarter of 2010 needed to use less of their income to cover their mortgage interest than anywhere else in the UK, according to new data by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

The annual growth in the banks’ net mortgage lending in July was 4.1%, substantially ahead of the 0.9% for the whole mortgage market in June.

Gross mortgage lending totalled an estimated £13.6 billion in July, a 5% increase from £12.9 billion in June but down 3% from £14 billion in July 2009, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Shareholders of Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) yesterday approved a £20 million capital injection from founding shareholder Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB), which takes QIIB’s stake in the bank to over 80%

For the second consecutive month housing market transactions increased in July. The LSL Acad House Price Index shows that housing transactions rose by 11% to an estimated 72,100 from 64,915 in June.

The freezing up of the buy-to-let mortgage market that emerged as an unwelcome side-effect of the credit crunch appears to have eased a little, according to the latest buy-to-let survey results from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.