UK Mortgage Lending Statistics: Quarterly Regulatory Returns

Quarterly data from 2007 onward, collected from approximately 340 regulated UK mortgage lenders and administrators via the Mortgage Lending and Administration Return (MLAR). The dataset tracks key metrics like the outstanding value of residential loans, gross advances, and new commitments, as jointly published by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. It provides a regulatory view of the UK mortgage market's size, activity, and trends over time.

Use Cases

• Monitoring market size and trends based on the outstanding value of residential mortgage loans.
• Analyzing lending activity and market liquidity using quarterly gross mortgage advances data.
• Forecasting near-term lending volumes based on new mortgage commitments data.
• Assessing regulatory impact and compliance across the mortgage lending sector.

Strengths

• Long-running time series with data collection starting in 2007, providing over 15 years of historical context.
• Covers a substantial portion of the market, with data submitted by approximately 340 regulated entities.
• Published by authoritative regulatory bodies (FCA and PRA), ensuring official status and relevance for policy analysis.

Limitations

• Specific column names and data granularity are not provided in the available metadata, limiting understanding of the dataset's structure.
• The 'last updated' metadata field (2026-07-08) appears to be a future date, indicating a potential data entry error or system artifact.
• The dataset's size (row count) and specific file formats beyond 'EXCEL XLSX, HTML' are not detailed.

Provenance

Source

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), United Kingdom.

Collection Method

Mandatory quarterly regulatory submissions (Mortgage Lending and Administration Return - MLAR) from regulated mortgage lenders and administrators.

Time Range

2007 to present (quarterly).

Freshness

The latest findings referenced are for 2023 Q2, but the platform metadata lists a 'last updated' date of 2026-07-08, which is inconsistent.

Geography

United Kingdom.