Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Latest Bank of England figures show that mortgage lending recorded its strongest quarterly jump in five years in the third quarter of 2025, with gross advances rising 36.9% to £80.4 billion. The increase marks the sharpest quarterly gain since 2020 amid a renewed surge in the UK property market.
The data showed that the outstanding value of all residential mortgage loans increased by 0.9% from the previous quarter to £1,733.7 billion, and was 2.9% higher than a year earlier.
The value of new mortgage commitments increased by 1.6% from the previous quarter to £79.4 billion, the highest since 2022 Q3, and was 20.3% higher than a year earlier.
The share of gross mortgage advances with loan-to-value (LTV) ratios exceeding 90% increased by 0.3 percentage points (pp) from the previous quarter to 7.4%, the highest share since 2008 Q2, and was 0.8pp higher than a year earlier.
The proportion of lending to borrowers with a high loan-to-income (LTI) ratio increased by 3.3pp from the previous quarter to 44.7%, the largest increase since 2020 Q3, but remained 0.6pp lower than a year earlier.
The value of outstanding mortgage balances with arrears decreased by 2.9% from the previous quarter to £20.6 billion, and was 5.8% lower than a year earlier.
The proportion of the total mortgage loan balances with arrears, relative to all outstanding mortgage balances, has stayed the same as the previous quarter at 1.2%, and was 0.1pp lower than a year earlier.
UK Finance has released its latest Household Finance Review, which showed that mortgage lending activity returned to growth in Quarter 3 (Q3), following a quieter second quarter caused by many transactions having been brought forward ahead of Stamp Duty changes in April. Refinancing also increased, with volumes up nearly 50 per cent year‑on‑year as more…
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Paragon Bank has announced that it has strengthened its mortgages division with the appointment of Simon Glass as Head of Mortgage Operations. Glass will head up Paragon Bank’s operations team with a focus on delivering good customer outcomes, reporting into Mortgage Lending Director, Lisa Steele. He leads Paragon’s buy-to-let underwriting, completions and customer relationship teams…
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Rapid rent increases since the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) has been frozen mean the gap between the support low-income private tenants receive and the 30th percentile of local rents is already at 14 per cent (£104 a month for a typical two-bedroom property). This affordability gap is expected to reach a record 17 per cent…
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Latest buy-to-let lending by UK Finance for Quarter 2 (Q2) has found that there were 49,590 new buy-to-let loans advanced in the UK, worth £8.8 billion. This was relatively flat compared with the same quarter in the previous year, down 2.6 per cent by number (0.2 per cent by value). The average gross buy-to-let rental…
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