Bank of England Mortgage Approvals and Lending December 2020

In December, annual growth in secured lending remained at a similar level to November, rising by 3.0% year-on-year.
- The monthly change in the additional amount households borrowed totalled £5.6bn, in line with the £5.7bn in the previous month and above the previous six-month average of £3.9bn.
- Despite the recent strong performance, total borrowing for 2020 was 10% below 2019 levels.

Mortgage approvals remained strong in December, totalling 103,381 from 105,324 in November and ahead of the previous six-month average of 81,618.
- For 2020, mortgage approvals totalled 818,537 – the largest number in one year since 2007.
- Compared with the same month a year ago, mortgage approvals rose by 54%.
The number of re-mortgaging approvals totalled 33,799 in December down from 34,893 in November. This was slightly lower than the previous six-month average of 34,631 and around 35% lower than in February.

Source: Bank of England

Households borrowed an additional £4.6bn of loans in December, improving on the £4.6bn borrowed in the month before, and above the previous six-month average of £3.6bn.
Annual growth in unsecured lending remained weak in December, falling by 7.5% year-on-year from -6.5% in the previous month - a new record low (series began in 1994).
- Households’ made a net repayment of £1.0 billion in December following a net repayment of £1.5bn in the previous month.
- There was a net repayment on credit cards of £0.8bn and a net repayment on other loans and advances of £0.1bn.

Source: Bank of England