The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today published its latest Mortgage Lending Data for the United Kingdom covering the period Q2 2012.
Key statistics for Q2 2012 are as follows:
- The total value of outstanding loans at the end of Q2 was £1,223bn, an increase of 0.1% on last quarter.
- New advances in the quarter amounted to £37bn, 1% higher than in Q1 and much the same as Q2 last year.
- The overall average interest rate on new advances rose from 3.50% last quarter to 3.78% in Q2. This resulted from increases in the rates for both variable rate lending and for fixed rate lending.
- New commitments totalled £40bn in the quarter, a 7% rise from last quarter but very similar to the amount in Q2 last year.
- Lending for house purchase accounted for 62% of new advances, up on both last quarter and on Q2 2011, and for 65% of commitments, the highest proportion yet recorded. As a consequence, the proportion of advances for remortgages fell back to 31%.
- The proportion of new lending done at an LTV of more than 90% was above 2% for the second successive quarter.
- New lending with a combination of high LTV and high income multiple was unchanged from the previous quarter, slightly in excess of 1% of new lending.
- The proportion of loans to borrowers with an impaired credit history remained at the same low level as last quarter (0.3%).
- In Q2 there were 34,400 new arrears cases, a decrease of 3% on last quarter and some 4% lower than Q2 last year.
- The total number of accounts in arrears at the end of the quarter also fell in Q2, by 2% to 296,500, 11% less than in Q2 2011 and the lowest total number since the end of 2007.
- The proportion of the residential loan book that is in arrears, and hence not fully performing, continued to fall, down to 2.44% in Q2 from 2.52% in Q1.
- Arrears totalling £27m on 7,882 accounts were capitalised in Q2.
- The number of new possessions in the quarter fell by 9% to 8,720.
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).
5. These are Official Statistics.