Bank of England Mortgage Approvals and Lending January 2021

Annual growth in secured lending improved in January, rising by 3.1% year-on-year, from 3.0% in December.
- The monthly change in the additional amount households borrowed totalled £5.2bn, in line with the £5.3bn in the previous month and above the previous six-month average of £4.4bn.
Mortgage approvals remained strong in January, totalling 98,994 from 102,809 in December and remaining ahead of the previous six-month average of 91,920.
- The slight slowdown on the previous month was a result of weakening consumer confidence and the upcoming end of the stamp-duty holiday.
- Compared with the same month a year ago, mortgage approvals rose by 40%.
The number of re-mortgaging approvals totalled 32,367 in January down from 33,667 in the previous month.
- This remained lower than the previous six-month average of 34,063 and around 38% lower than in February 2020.

Source: Bank of England

Households borrowed an additional £2.8bn of loans in January, down on the £4.5bn borrowed in December and lower than the previous six-month average of £4.0bn.

Annual growth in unsecured lending deteriorated in January, falling by 8.9% year-on-year from -7.5% in the previous month - a new record low (series began in 1994).
- Households’ made a net repayment of £2.4 billion in January following a net repayment of £0.9bn in the previous month.
- This was the largest net repayment since May 2020 as less new borrowing was undertaken.
- The weakness was driven by a £2.2bn net repayment on credit cards with a smaller net repayment on other loans and advances of £0.2bn.

Source: Bank of England