U.K. home mortgage approvals at low point

LONDON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Mortgage approvals for British home buyers fell to a record low last month, a report from the British Bankers' Association said.

Observers called it a further sign that Britain's property boom was slowing, the London Telegraph said Friday.

The BBA announced that the number of approvals tumbled 37 percent during October to 44,105, compared to 53,997 the previous month. It was the third consecutive month that approvals dropped.

Meanwhile, the Kensington Group, the United Kingdom's first sub-prime lender, stopped offering mortgages to borrowers with poor credit histories.

Third quarter gross domestic product figures indicated slower growth in British economy than had been expected. The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 0.7 percent in the quarter, below the previous estimate of 0.8 percent.