UK Mortgage Lending Statistics: Quarterly Regulatory Returns

FCA and Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) jointly publish quarterly mortgage lending statistics based on mandatory returns from regulated lenders. Since 2007, around 340 mortgage lenders and administrators submit a Mortgage Lending and Administration Return (MLAR) each quarter. The data includes metrics such as the outstanding value of residential mortgage loans, gross mortgage advances, and new mortgage commitments.

Use Cases

• Monitoring quarterly trends in UK residential mortgage lending based on regulatory returns.
• Analyzing the impact of economic events on gross mortgage advances and new commitments.
• Assessing the scale and growth of the UK mortgage market using the outstanding loan value.
• Researching the relationship between regulatory data collection (MLAR) and market oversight.

Strengths

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

Limitations

• Specific column names and dataset structure are not provided in the available metadata.
• The 'last updated' date (2026-07-08) appears to be a future date, creating a conflict regarding data freshness.
• The exact number of rows and granularity (e.g., lender-level vs. aggregated) is unknown.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Quarterly data collection likely starting from 2007, with example data points from 2020.

Freshness

Last updated date is listed as 2026-07-08, which is a future date and may be an error. The latest findings referenced are from 2020 Q2.

Geography

United Kingdom