UK Mortgage Lending Statistics: Quarterly Regulatory Returns

Quarterly statistics on UK residential mortgage lending are compiled from mandatory returns submitted by approximately 340 regulated lenders and administrators. The data includes metrics such as the outstanding value of mortgage loans, gross mortgage advances, and new mortgage commitments. These figures are jointly published by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority to inform on market activity and support regulatory oversight.

Use Cases

• Monitoring housing market health based on quarterly trends in gross mortgage advances and loan commitments.
• Assessing financial stability and credit risk using the aggregate outstanding value of residential mortgage loans.
• Analyzing the impact of regulatory policy by tracking lender-reported data over time.
• Forecasting economic activity using new mortgage commitments as a leading indicator for future lending.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from a comprehensive regulatory census of approximately 340 lenders, ensuring broad market coverage.
• Provides a consistent quarterly time series starting from 2007, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Published under the OGL-UK-3.0 license, facilitating open use and redistribution.

Limitations

• Specific column names and the granularity of the underlying data (e.g., by lender, region, or loan type) are not described in the provided sources.
• The 'last updated' metadata from uk_data (2026-07-08) appears to be a future date, which conflicts with the dataset title referencing Q2 2022, creating uncertainty about data freshness.
• The exact number of rows and the dataset's size are unknown, limiting assessments of its scale and detail.

Provenance

Source

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA)

Collection Method

Mandatory quarterly submission of the Mortgage Lending and Administration Return (MLAR) by regulated firms.

Time Range

Quarterly data from 2007 onward

Freshness

The dataset title references Q2 2022 data, but platform metadata lists a last updated date of 2026-07-08, creating a conflict.

Geography

United Kingdom