Lending in December:
- Home-owner house purchase lending totalled £11.6bn in December, up 5% on November and 3% on December 2015. This came to 63,600 loans, up 5% on November and 0.2% on December 2015.
- First-time buyers borrowed £5.1bn for home-owner house purchase, up 9% on November and 13% on December 2015. This totalled 32,000 loans, up 7% month-on-month and 8% year-on-year.
- Home movers borrowed £6.5bn, up 3% on November but down 3% year-on-year. This totalled 31,600 loans, up 3% month-on-month but down 7% compared to December 2015.
- Home-owner remortgage activity was down 21% by volume and by value compared to November. Compared to December 2015, remortgage lending was up 7% by volume and by value.
- Gross buy-to-let saw month-on-month decreases, down 15% by volume and 7% by value. Compared to December 2015, the number of loans decreased 21% and the value of these loans decreased 18%.
Lending in the fourth quarter of 2016:
- Home-owner house purchase lending fell in the fourth quarter to £33.1bn, down 3% on the third quarter and 2% on the same quarter 2015. This totalled 182,000 loans, down 2% on the previous quarter and 4% on the final period of 2015.
- First-time buyers took out 90,800 loans totalling £14.3bn to purchase homes. This was down 1% by volume and value on the third quarter, but up 4% by volume and 7% by value year-on-year.
- Home movers took out 91,300 loans, down 4% quarter-on-quarter and 11% compared to the fourth quarter 2015. This came to £18.7bn, down 6% on quarter three and 9% year-on-year.
- Home-owner remortgage activity came to £16.6bn, down 5% on the previous quarter but up 10% on the fourth quarter 2015. The number of remortgage loans came to 97,500, down 3% on the third quarter but up 9% on the same quarter in 2015.
- Gross buy-to-let lending decreased to £6bn, down 2% on the previous quarter and 3% on the same quarter in 2015. This totalled 57,400 loans, up 2% quarter-on-quarter but down 20% year-on-year.
Lending in 2016:
- Home buyers borrowed £127.7bn in 2016, up 7% on 2015. This came to 698,900 loans, up 3% on 2015.
- First-time buyers borrowed £53.2bn for home-owner house purchase in 2016, up 13% on 2015. This totalled 338,900 loans, up 8% from the previous year. First-time buyer borrowed more in 2016 than any other year since our records began in 1974.
- Home movers took out 360,300 loans, down 2% on 2015, but the amount borrowed totalled £74.3bn which was up 3% on 2015.
- Home-owner remortgage activity was up 14% by volume and 20% by value compared to 2015. The number of remortgage loans was at its highest since 2009.
- Gross buy-to-let also saw year-on-year increases, up 3% by volume and 7% by value, with remortgage business accounting for nearly two thirds of the total.
Breakdown of total value of mortgage loans per year in the UK
| Home-owner house purchase (in £millions) | Buy-to-let gross lending (in £millions) | ||||
| First-time buyers | Home movers | Remortgage | BtL house purchase | BtL remortgage | |
| 2007 | 47,200 | 107,500 | 129,200 | 23,100 | 20,600 |
| 2008 | 23,900 | 51,800 | 118,400 | 12,200 | 14,600 |
| 2009 | 22,000 | 47,300 | 51,800 | 4,500 | 3,400 |
| 2010 | 24,100 | 54,700 | 39,600 | 4,600 | 3,600 |
| 2011 | 23,800 | 51,700 | 46,700 | 6,200 | 6,400 |
| 2012 | 27,500 | 53,900 | 41,400 | 7,400 | 7,600 |
| 2013 | 36,100 | 58,100 | 45,100 | 9,300 | 10,700 |
| 2014 | 44,800 | 67,200 | 45,400 | 12,400 | 14,500 |
| 2015 | 46,900 | 72,400 | 55,200 | 15,600 | 21,900 |
| 2016 | 53,200 | 74,300 | 66,200 | 14,900 | 25,100 |
Source: CML Regulated Mortgage Survey (April 2005 onwards)
Home-owner house purchase lending in December
The proportion of household income used to service capital and interest rates reached another historic low this month for both first-time buyers and home movers at 17.4% and 17.5% respectively.
Affordability metrics for first-time buyers saw the typical loan size increase from £134,100 in November to £136,000 in December. The average household income increased to £40,400 from £40,100. This meant the income multiple went from 3.54 to 3.57.
The average amount borrowed by home movers in the UK increased to £175,000 in December from £170,900 in November, while the average home mover household income increased slightly to £55,000 from £54,800. The income multiple for the average home mover went from 3.27 to 3.32.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, remortgage and buy-to-let activity differed markedly from the unadjusted figures. While remortgage lending decreased 21% on November on an unadjusted basis, on a seasonally adjusted basis it was a decline of only 2%. Buy-to-let lending was unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis in December compared to the previous month and December 2015, despite the non-seasonally adjusted levels showing a decline.
Chart 1: Number of loans to home-owners, 2007-2016
Source: CML Regulated Mortgage Survey
Buy-to-let lending
Gross buy-to-let lending decreased in December from November. However, of the three quarters after the stamp duty changes in April, gross quarterly lending was its highest by volume and by value in the final quarter of 2016. Nearly two thirds of buy-to-let loans were remortgages rather than house purchase.
Chart 2: Number of loans for buy-to-let, 2007-2016
Source: CML Economics (pre-2013 data based on quarterly data)
Table 1: Number of loans for house purchase and remortgage in December
| House purchase | Remortgage | ||||
| FTBs | Movers | Buy-to-let | Home owners | Buy-to-let | |
| December 2015 | 29,600 | 33,800 | 10,300 | 26,000 | 11,900 |
| November 2016 | 30,000 | 30,800 | 6,700 | 34,900 | 14,000 |
| December 2016 | 32,000 | 31,600 | 6,400 | 27,700 | 11,200 |
| 1 month change | +6.7% | +2.6% | -4.5% | -20.6% | -20.0% |
| 12 month change | +8.1% | -6.5% | -37.9% | +6.5% | -5.9% |
Table 2: Number of loans for house purchase and remortgage in the fourth quarter
| House purchase | Remortgage | ||||
| FTBs | Movers | Buy-to-let | Home owners | Buy-to-let | |
| Q4 2015 | 87,600 | 102,600 | 31,600 | 89,600 | 38,200 |
| Q3 2016 | 91,300 | 95,400 | 19,000 | 100,000 | 36,800 |
| Q4 2016 | 90,800 | 91,300 | 19,300 | 97,500 | 37,300 |
| 1 quarter change | -0.5% | -4.3% | -1.6% | -2.5% | +1.4% |
| 4 quarter change | +3.7% | -11.0% | -38.9% | +8.8% | -2.4% |
Table 3: Value of loans for house purchase and remortgage in December
| House purchase (£m) | Remortgage (£m) | ||||
| FTBs | Movers | Buy-to-let | Home owners | Buy-to-let | |
| December 2015 | 4,500 | 6,700 | 1,400 | 4,300 | 1,900 |
| November 2016 | 4,700 | 6,300 | 900 | 5,800 | 2,200 |
| December 2016 | 5,100 | 6,500 | 900 | 4,600 | 1,800 |
| 1 month change | +8.5% | +3.2% | 0% | -20.7% | -18.2% |
| 12 month change | +13.3% | -3.0% | -35.7% | +7.0% | -5.3% |
Table 4: Value of loans for house purchase and remortgage in the fourth quarter 2016
| House purchase (£m) | Remortgage (£m) | ||||
| FTBs | Movers | Buy-to-let | Home owners | Buy-to-let | |
| Q4 2015 | 13,400 | 20,500 | 4,300 | 15,100 | 6,200 |
| Q3 2016 | 14,400 | 19,800 | 2,800 | 17,400 | 6,100 |
| Q4 2016 | 14,300 | 18,700 | 2,700 | 16,600 | 6,000 |
| 1 quarter change | -0.7% | -5.6% | -3.6% | -4.6% | -1.6% |
| 4 quarter change | +6.7% | -8.8% | -37.2% | +9.9% | -3.2% |