Harry WellsThe FCA has published mortgage lending statistics for Q4 2023. The data comes from the 340 regulated mortgage lenders and administrators who are required to submit the Mortgage Lending and Administration Return each quarter on their mortgage lending activities.
The key findings from these statistics include:
- The outstanding value of all residential mortgage loans decreased by 0.1% from the previous quarter, and was 1.1% lower than a year earlier .
- The value of gross mortgage advances decreased by 13.4% from the previous quarter, and was 33.8% lower than a year earlier.
- The value of new mortgage commitments (lending agreed to be advanced in the coming months) decreased by 6.6% from the previous quarter, and was 21.2% lower than a year earlier.
- The proportion of lending to borrowers with a high loan to income (LTI) ratio decreased by 2.6pp from the previous quarter to 42.7%, and was 6.6pp lower than a year earlier.
- The share of gross mortgage advances for house purchase for owner occupation increased by 1.0pp from the previous quarter to 58.7%, and was 3.3pp higher than a year earlier.
- The share of gross advances for re-mortgages for owner occupation decreased by 0.8pp from the previous quarter to 29.7%, but was 2.3pp higher than a year earlier.
- The share of gross mortgage advances for buy-to-let purposes (covering house purchase, re-mortgage and further advance) decreased by 0.5pp from the previous quarter to 7.0%.
- New arrears cases decreased by 2.6pp from the previous quarter, but remained 0.2pp higher than a year earlier.
- The value of outstanding mortgage balances with arrears increased by 9.2% from the previous quarter, and was 50.3% higher than a year earlier. The proportion of the total loan balances with arrears, relative to all outstanding mortgage balances, increased on the quarter from 1.12% to 1.23%.
The FCA will publish data for Q1 2024 on 11 June 2024.