Mortgage lending data published by FSA

The latest mortgage lending data for the UK has been published by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The data, which includes the last quarter of 2009 reveals that the total value of outstanding loans is now £1,027 billion – an increase of 1% on the year before.

The FSA’s figures also show that lending for house purchases accounted for 62% of new advances and 63% of new commitments in the last quarter, with advances for the quarter totalling £41 billion and commitments for the quarter totalling £36 billion.

The proportion of new lending done at an Loan To Value (LTV) of more than 90% accounted for less than 2% of new advances for the second quarter in succession, down from 6% in Q4 last year. The use of combinations of high LTVs and high income multiples also continued to decrease, and accounted for less than 1% of new lending in Q4.

Meanwhile, the proportion of loans to borrowers with an impaired credit history was little changed during Q4 2009, at 0.4%, whilst the number of new arrears cases has reduced in each quarter of 2009, and was down by a further 9% in Q4 2009, to 41,000.

The total number of accounts in arrears had fallen to 378,000 by the end of 2009, a decrease of 4% in the quarter, and is similar to the level at the end of 2008. The proportion of the residential loan book that is in arrears, and hence not fully performing, fell for the second successive quarter, to 3.42%.

The FSA report also highlights the fact that the number of new possessions totaled 11,800, a decrease of 15% on last quarter and the lowest figure since Q2 2008.