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Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Statistics - 2022 Q4

The Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Return (MLAR) is a quarterly statistical release aggregated from data on mortgage lending activities provided by around 340 regulated mortgage lenders and administrators.

Published on 14 March 2023

Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Statistics: 2022 Q4

Key findings

The outstanding value of all residential mortgage loans was £1,675.8 billion at the end of 2022 Q4, 3.9% higher than a year earlier (Table A). ^{footnote [1]}
The value of gross mortgage advances in 2022 Q4 was £81.6 billion, which was £4.3 billion lower than the previous quarter, but 16.3% higher than in 2021 Q4 (Table A and Chart 1).
The value of new mortgage commitments (lending agreed to be advanced in the coming months) in 2022 Q4 was 33.5% less than the previous quarter and 24.5% less than a year earlier, at £58.4 billion. If the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and period immediately thereafter is excluded, this was the lowest observed since 2015 Q1 (Table A and Chart 1).
The share of gross mortgage advances with interest rates less than 2% above Bank Rate was 93.6% in 2022 Q4, 22.0 percentage points (pp) higher than a year ago and the highest seen since 2008 Q2 (Chart 2).
The share of gross mortgage advances in 2022 Q4 with loan to value (LTV) ratios exceeding 90% was 5.1%, 0.9pp higher than a year earlier and the highest observed since 2020 Q1 (Chart 3).
The proportion of lending to borrowers with a high loan to income (LTI) ratio decreased by 2.2pp on the quarter to 49.3% in 2022 Q4, the lowest seen since 2021 Q3 (Chart 4).
The share for house purchase for owner occupation was 55.4%, down 0.8pp on the previous quarter, but up 2.3pp from 2021 Q4. The share of gross advances for remortgages for owner occupation was 27.3%, a decrease of 0.8pp since 2021 Q4, but an increase of 2.4pp since 2022 Q3 (Chart 5).
The value of outstanding balances with arrears increased for the first time since 2021 Q1, by 4.6% over the quarter and 1.3% over the year, to £13.6 billion in 2022 Q4. This now accounts for 0.81% of outstanding mortgage balances, but remains close to the historical low of 0.78% in 2022 Q3 (Chart 6).

Regulated and non-regulated mortgages *

£ billions

Not seasonally adjusted

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
	2021				2022
Flows
Gross advances	83.2	89.1	73.4	70.2	76.9	78.0	85.9	81.6
New commitments	77.4	86.1	78.9	77.3	82.5	84.0	87.8	58.4

Amounts outstanding	1,561.6	1,587.6	1,601.9	1,613.5	1,630.8	1,648.8	1,667.1	1,675.8

*This data covers regulated mortgage lending, and non-regulated mortgage lending by firms which undertake regulated mortgage lending or administration of regulated mortgages.

Graphical Analysis:

The value of gross mortgage advances in 2022 Q4 was £81.6 billion, which was £4.3 billion lower than the previous quarter, but 16.3% higher than in 2021 Q4 (Table A and Chart 1). ^{footnote [2]}
The value of new mortgage commitments (lending agreed to be advanced in the coming months) in 2022 Q4 was 33.5% less than the previous quarter and 24.5% less than a year earlier, at £58.4 billion. If the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and period immediately thereafter is excluded, this was the lowest observed since 2015 Q1 (Table A and Chart 1). ^{footnote [3]}

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The share of gross mortgage advances with interest rates less than 2% above Bank Rate was 93.6% in 2022 Q4, 0.7pp higher than last quarter. This was 22.0pp higher than a year ago and the highest seen since 2008 Q2 (Chart 2). ^{footnote [4]}
The share of advances with interest rates between 2% and 3% above Bank Rate decreased over the quarter to 3.8% from 4.2%, while the share of advances with interest rates 3% or more above Bank Rate decreased by 0.3pp to 2.6% from 2022 Q3. ^{footnote [5]} ^{footnote [6]}

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The share of advances with LTV ratios exceeding 90% remained broadly unchanged from the previous quarter, at 5.1% in 2022 Q4. This was 0.9pp higher than a year earlier, and the highest seen since 2020 Q1 (Chart 3). ^{footnote [7]} Within this, the share of mortgages advanced with LTVs over 95% remained at 0.2%. ^{footnote [9]}
The share of mortgages advanced in 2022 Q4 with LTV ratios exceeding 75% decreased by 1.4pp on the quarter to 37.0%, but remained 0.3pp higher than a year earlier. ^{footnote [8]}

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The proportion of lending to borrowers with a high loan to income (LTI) ratio decreased by 2.2pp on the quarter to 49.3% in 2022 Q4, 0.8pp lower than a year earlier, and the lowest observed since 2021 Q3 (Chart 4). ^{footnote [10]} Borrowers with high LTI are defined here as:

Borrowers with single income who had a LTI ratio of 4 or above. These loans accounted for 10.6% of gross mortgage lending in 2022 Q4, a 0.6pp decrease compared to the previous quarter. ^{footnote [11]}
Borrowers with a joint income who had a LTI of 3 or above. These loans accounted for 38.7% of gross mortgage lending in 2022 Q4, a 1.6pp decrease compared to the previous quarter. ^{footnote [12]}

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The share of gross mortgage advances for buy-to-let purposes (covering house purchase, remortgage and further advance) was 11.9% in 2022 Q4, a fall of 0.6pp on the previous quarter but an increase of 0.1pp from 2021 Q4 (Chart 5). The share of advances to owner occupiers was 88.1%. ^{footnote [13]} ^{footnote [14]}
Of the 88.1% of advances for owner occupiers, the share for remortgages was 27.3%, a decrease of 0.8pp since 2021 Q4, but an increase of 2.4pp since 2022 Q3. The share for house purchase was 55.4%, down 0.8pp on the previous quarter but up 2.3pp from 2021 Q4. Further advances and other mortgages (including lifetime mortgages) accounted for 5.4% of gross advances in total. ^{footnote [15]} ^{footnote [16]} ^{footnote [17]}
Of the 55.4% of advances for house purchases by owner occupiers, lending to first-time buyers was 0.9pp higher than in 2021 Q4, at 24.2% of gross advances. This was also 0.9pp higher than 2022 Q3, and the highest observed since 2021 Q3. The share advanced to home movers increased by 1.5pp on a year earlier, to 31.2%, but was 1.7pp lower than 2022 Q3. ^{footnote [18]} ^{footnote [19]}

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The value of outstanding balances with arrears (defined as the borrower failing to make contractual payments equivalent to at least 1.5% of the outstanding mortgage balance or where the property is in possession) increased for the first time since 2021 Q1, by 4.6% on the quarter and 1.3% on a year earlier, to £13.6 billion (Chart 6). ^{footnote [20]}
The proportion of total loan balances with arrears also slightly increased on the quarter for the first time since 2021 Q1, from a historical low of 0.78% to 0.81%. ^{footnote [21]}

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Table 1.11 sub table A row 9
Table 1.21 sub table C row 1
Table 1.21 sub table C row 3
Table 1.22 sub table C row 3 (less than 2% above)
Table 1.22 sub table C row 4 (2.00% to 2.99% above)
Table 1.22 sub table C row 5 + row 6 (3% or more above)
Table 1.31 sub table C row 19 + row 20
Calculated as 100% of all mortgages less those <=75% LTV (Table 1.31 sub table C row 21 - row 17)
Table 1.31 sub table C row 20
Table 1.31 sub table C row 5 + row 13
Table 1.31 sub table C row 5
Table 1.31 sub table C row 13
Table 1.33 sub table C row 4 (buy-to-let)
Calculated as 100% of all mortgages less those for buy-to-let purposes (100% - Table 1.33 sub table C row 4) (owner-occupation)
Table 1.33 sub table C row 6 (remortgage)
Table 1.33 sub table C row 2 + row 3 (house purchase owner occupation)
Table 1.33 sub table C row 5 + row 9 (further advance and other)
Table 1.33 sub table C row 2 (first-time buyers)
Table 1.33 sub table C row 3 (home movers)
Table 1.7 sub table C row 10
Table 1.7 sub table C row 11

Queries

If you have any comments or queries about this release please email mlar@bankofengland.co.uk.

Next release date: 13 June 2023

More information

Long run versions of the summary and detailed tables are now available in Excel format, for data going back to Q1 2007. These have been sourced from data published by the FSA on their archive pages prior to Q1 2013 and data published by the Bank of England from Q1 2013

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