Lloyds limits mortgage lending to cool London housing prices

[LONDON] Lloyds Banking Group Plc, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, said it will impose limits on lending to homebuyers to counteract rising house prices in London.

The bank will cap lending at four times salary on loans of more than £500,000 (S$1.1 million), Lloyds said in a statement on Tuesday. The lender, which is 25 per cent owned by the government, said the policy will affect about 8 per cent of its lending in the UK capital.

"This is a targeted response to an issue largely in the upper tiers of the London housing market," Stephen Noakes, group director of mortgages at Lloyds, said in the statement. "This prudent update to our lending policies is intended to manage risks to our business and for our customers."