UK Mortgage Lending Statistics: Quarterly Regulatory Returns

£1,613.4 billion was the outstanding value of all residential mortgage loans in the UK at the end of 2021 Q4. The dataset contains quarterly statistics on mortgage lending activities, submitted by around 340 regulated lenders and administrators since 2007 under the Mortgage Lending and Administration Return (MLAR) scheme. It is jointly published by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulatory Authority.

Use Cases

• Tracking aggregate mortgage lending volumes and commitments over time based on quarterly time-series data.
• Analyzing the health and growth of the UK residential mortgage market based on outstanding loan values and new advances.
• Monitoring regulatory compliance and market activity of mortgage lenders based on mandatory reporting returns.
• Assessing potential future lending flows based on data on new mortgage commitments agreed for the coming months.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from mandatory regulatory returns submitted by approximately 340 institutions, ensuring broad market coverage.
• Provides a consistent quarterly time series starting from 2007, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Published jointly by two major UK financial regulators (FCA and PRA), indicating authoritative sourcing.

Limitations

• Specific column names and the granularity of the underlying data are not provided in the available metadata.
• The 'last updated' metadata field (2026-07-08) appears to be a future date, creating a conflict regarding data freshness.
• The exact number of rows and dataset size are unknown, limiting assessment of its scale and completeness.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2007 Q1 onward (quarterly). Specific data points provided for 2020 Q4 and 2021 Q4.

Freshness

The metadata indicates a last updated date of 2026-07-08, which is inconsistent. The described data references 2021 Q4.

Geography

United Kingdom.