UK mortgage approvals rose in December - UK Finance

According to the report from UK Finance, gross mortgage lending across the residential market in December 2019 was £22.2 billion, bringing the annual total for 2019 to £265.8 billion. Although annually 1.1 per cent lower than in 2018, the last two years have broadly reflected the continuation of a stronger long term lending trend over recent years.

An annual total of 982,286 mortgages were approved by the main high street banks during 2019, 7.4 per cent more than in 2018. The full year number of mortgages approved for home purchases were 8.0 per cent higher, remortgage approvals were 7.9 per cent higher and approvals for other secured borrowing were 3.0 per cent higher than in 2018.

Credit card spending of £11.8 billion in December 2019 was 7.3 per cent higher than in December 2018. Repayments continue to offset spending, so that the level of borrowing on cards is currently growing at only 2.4 per cent annually, continuing the general slowdown from the recent high of 6.6 per cent in October 2016.

Personal borrowing through loans in December 2019 was 14.0 per cent higher than in December 2018, reflecting the exceptionally weak demand a year earlier. Overdraft borrowing has been declining over recent years, such that December's level was 0.8 per cent lower than at the same time a year earlier.

Personal deposits grew by 2.5 per cent in the year to December 2019. Three-quarters of deposits were held in immediate access accounts in December 2019, in line with the same period last year.