Lease takeover credit approvals hit 3-year low

The lease credit approval rate on Swapalease.com hit its lowest level in three years last month, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

According to the lease transfer site, the lease approval rate was 54.2 percent. Such a low rate is typical for the end of the year and actually points to busy buying behavior — or as Swapalease put it, the “end-of-year shopping frenzy.”

“2016 saw its fair share of ups and downs in credit approvals, but despite the volatility we saw an increasing number of volume in buyer activity due to continuous demand for lease takeovers,” Scot Hall, Swapalease’s executive vice president, said in a news release.

“Lower numbers toward the end of the year are a typical seasonal trend that is likely due to an increase in shopping overall,” he said. “It will be interesting to see where the volatility goes entering the first few months of 2017.”

In November, the approval rate hit 64.7 percent, and in 2015, the December approval rate came in at 54.5 percent.

For 2016, February had the strongest approval rate at 70 percent, with December being the low point.