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Bank of England mortgage approvals data shows "that new buyer momentum is slowing"

ended 01. May 2025

Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals increased sharply by £9.7 billion to £13.0 billion in March, following a decrease in net borrowing of £1.0 billion to £3.3 billion in February, according to the Bank of England. The annual growth rate for net mortgage lending rose from 1.9% to 2.7% in March, the highest since March 2023 (2.7%). Gross lending increased significantly to £39.9 billion in March, from £24.9 billion in February, and was the highest since June 2021 (£42.4 billion). Gross repayments also increased in March, to £23.7 billion from £19.8 billion, the highest level of repayments since October 2022 (£25.9 billion).

Meanwhile, net mortgage approvals (that is, approvals net of cancellations) for house purchases, which is an indicator of future borrowing, decreased for the third consecutive month, with a fall of 800 to 64,300 in March. By contrast, approvals for remortgaging (which only capture remortgaging with a different lender) increased by 1,000 to 33,400 in March, following a decrease of 700 in February.

Newspage asked brokers for their views, which will appear below until 10:15.

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Harry Goodliffe
Director at HTG Mortgages
There’s clearly life in the market, but it’s not all what it seems. That surge in mortgage borrowing looks great, but much of it reflects deals that were already in the pipeline from earlier in the year. What really matters is that purchase approvals are still dipping, showing that new buyer momentum is slowing. Remortgaging is where the real movement is, with homeowners rushing to secure better rates. For first-time buyers, the market is active, but still full of challenges. The focus now needs to be on keeping lending accessible and rates coming down.
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Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal
There is usually a four to six month time lag between completion and new applications given the time it now takes to purchase a property in the UK. Whilst completion values rising so sharply is positive news, this is very much a picture of the past. The decline in new applications is more concerning and suggests declining confidence among borrowers, as well as the impact of the stamp duty deadline.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
The figures certainly follow the expected pattern of activity fuelled by the Stamp Duty threshold changes starting the 1st April, and buyers ensuring they take advantage by moving early in 2025. With mortgage lenders also cutting the window of opportunity to take a Product Transfer to 3 or 4 months, borrowers are better placed to remortgage and take advantage of those 6-month offers, giving those looking for a new deal some security with their finances whilst still being able to benefit from improving rates.
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Pete Mugleston
Mortgage Advisor & Managing Director at onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk
With net mortgage approvals decreasing for the third straight month, this could be a result of the Stamp Duty deadline, putting off potential buyers. It will be interesting to see if this picks up as the year progresses, with rates forecast to decrease. That could be the impetus many need to jump into the market. Those looking to remortgage are clearly taking advantage of rates coming down. I'd expect to see this figure increase in the coming months as lenders, hopefully, continue to revise their rates downwards.
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Sean Horton
Managing Director at Respect Mortgages
The March mortgage figures are nothing short of remarkable. Net mortgage debt jumped nearly fourfold from February, hitting £13 billion – the highest since June 2021.

This surge was clearly driven by buyers rushing to beat the stamp duty changes that took effect in April. The completion frenzy makes perfect sense given the tax savings at stake.

While approvals have softly decreased for three consecutive months, the modest nature of these falls (just 800 in March) suggests steady underlying demand persists. At 64,300, purchase approvals remain historically solid.

The slight fall in mortgage rates helped fuel this borrowing bonanza, with the average new mortgage rate easing to 4.50%. Lender's have reduced rates since then so we would expect the April average to be sub 4.50%.