UK's Financial Services Authority Mortgage Lending Data Published

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today published its latest Mortgage Lending Data for the United Kingdom covering the period Q4 2011.

Key statistics for Q4 2011 are as follows:

The total value of outstanding loans at the end of Q4 was £1,218bn, an increase of less than 0.1% on last quarter;

New advances in the quarter amounted to £40bn, 8% lower than in Q3 but some 9% higher than the amount advanced in Q4 2010;
The overall average interest rate on new advances continued to fall during the quarter, down from 3.59% to 3.49%, a new low for the series. The reduction was a result of a fall in the rate for fixed rate lending more than offsetting a small increase in the variable rate;
New commitments totalled £37bn in the quarter, 11% down on Q3 but 7% higher than in Q4 last year;
Lending for house purchase accounted for 61% of new advances, up on Q3, and 58% of commitments, a small decrease from last quarter. The proportion of advances for remortgages (32%) was much as in Q3, though there was an increase in commitments from 32% to 34%;
The proportion of new lending done at an LTV of more than 90% continued to be below 2% in Q4, as it was throughout 2011;
New lending with a combination of high LTV and high income multiple rose slightly in the final quarter of the year and accounted for just over 1% of new lending;
The proportion of loans to borrowers with an impaired credit history remained at 0.4% for the third successive quarter. It has been below 1% since the end of 2008;
In Q4 there were 34,600 new arrears cases which was down 1% on last quarter and 14% lower than in Q4 last year;
Consequently, the total number of accounts in arrears at the end of the quarter also fell and, at 313,200, was 3% down on Q3 and 9% below Q4 2010;
The proportion of the residential loan book that is in arrears, and hence not fully performing also continued on a downward trend, to 2.61% from 2.72% last quarter;
The number of new possessions in the quarter fell by 9% to 8,827; and
Arrears totalling £36m on 9,815 accounts were capitalised in Q4.

N.B. No breakdown is available for these statistics on a regional or local authority basis.

Background

The mortgage data is compiled from Mortgage Lending Administration Returns (MLAR) provided by regulated firms. It covers information on residential mortgage lending and some non-regulated business, i.e. buy-to-let and second charge mortgages. This information is published quarterly.

The FSA definition of a reportable arrears case covers loans where the amount of actual arrears is 1.5% or more of the borrower’s current loan balance. For example if the loan balance is £100,000 and arrears on the loan amount to £1,500 or more, then it is a reportable arrears case for MLAR purposes.

The FSA definition of a possession refers to an arrears case where the lender, having formally been granted a Possession Order by a Court, is then able to sell the underlying property (against which the loan is secured) and use the proceeds to reduce or pay-off the mortgage debt. Our figures relate to individual loan accounts in possession.

In terms of ' loan accounts in possession' this number does not represent the number of borrowers that have been subject to possession. It represents the number of individual loan accounts in possession, and covers possessions arising on 1st charge loans, 2nd and subsequent charge loans (where the borrower takes an extra loan from another lender).

These are Official Statistics.