CINCINNATI — Vehicle lease applicants registered a 75% approval rate in March, according to online lease marketplace Swapalease.com. That’s up 3.8% from February’s 72.2% approval rate and up from the 66.7% approval rate in March 2016.

This year is already showing higher lease credit approval rates than 2016. Data from the past three years show that the beginning of the year tends to have a slightly lower approval rate. That hasn’t been the case so far in 2017, with two straight months with approval rates above 70%.

“After 2016, which saw an increase in the number of overall applicants, as well as a higher number of nonapprovals, it’s good to see 2017 begin to see higher approval rates,” said Scot Hall, executive vice president of Swapalease.com. “We’ll have to see how the next few months come together, but we’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll see this rate of higher approvals continue.”

Despite rising incentives and an increase in the number of lease returns to dealerships, auto dealers continue to push lease deals for consumers. The most recent lease outlook from RVI Group has lease penetrations remaining at near all-time highs.

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