UK mortgage lending remained strong in the second quarter of 2026, with gross advances rising 11.1% from the previous quarter to £77.4bn, up 31.7% year on year, according to the Bank of England's Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Statistics (BoE MLAR).

The central bank's Q2 data showed that new mortgage commitments increased 1.4% quarter-on-quarter to £79.2bn and were 1.3% higher than a year earlier. The BoE said the outstanding value of residential mortgage loans rose 0.8% to £1.76trn, while mortgage balances in arrears fell 1.9% to £19.7bn, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2023.

The share of advances for buy-to-let purposes fell to 8%, its lowest level since the third quarter of 2024, while owner-occupier remortgaging increased to 31.2%, its highest level since the first quarter of 2024. The proportion of advances at loan-to-value ratios above 90% also reached 8.4%, the highest since the second quarter of 2008.

Rob Clifford, CEO of Stonebridge mortgage and protection network, said the figures were distorted by events including last year’s stamp duty changes but suggest strong underlying growth.

He stated: "It’s that last factor that complicates this report, because approvals surged and advances slumped after the stamp duty changes in April last year. This masks the true picture but, if we take a step back, both commitments and advances still look strong compared with long-run averages.

"The second quarter of 2026 actually witnessed the second highest level of new mortgage commitments since Q3 2022, and the fourth highest advances since the end of that year. So there remains huge momentum in the mortgage market and we remain very confident that our business and the sector will deliver the 2026 results we predicted at the start of this year."

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