Real Estate/News
UK mortgage approvals fall to 54,900 in August as the new-loan rate rises to 4.60%
Bank of England Money and Credit: house-purchase approvals are 5,200 below their six-month average and remortgaging approvals slipped too.
By Daily Aletheia · Checked against the primary source · 29 September 2026 · 2 min read
The Bank of England published Money and Credit for August 2026 on 29 September.
Mortgages
Net mortgage approvals for house purchase fell to 54,900 in August from 55,900 in July, below an average of around 60,100 over the previous six months. The Bank calls approvals an indicator of future borrowing.
Approvals for remortgaging with a different lender fell to 34,000 from 34,600.
Net mortgage borrowing rose to £4.4 billion from £4.1 billion, still below the six-month average of £5.2 billion. Annual growth in net mortgage lending held at 3.6%. Gross secured lending fell to £23.6 billion from £25.3 billion.
The effective rate on newly drawn mortgages rose to 4.60% from 4.45%. The rate across all outstanding mortgages was 4.00%, up from 3.97%.
Households' other borrowing
Consumer credit borrowing rose to £2.5 billion from £2.1 billion, above its six-month average of £1.9 billion. Credit cards took £1.2 billion of it, and annual growth in card borrowing rose to 13.3%.
Households put £4.7 billion into banks and building societies, £4.4 billion of it into ISAs.
Businesses
Non-financial businesses borrowed a net £4.1 billion from banks, up from £1.9 billion. Small and medium-sized firms borrowed £0.9 billion, unchanged on July.
The next release is due on 29 October.