Finance
UK lenders approve more mortgages, consumers borrow more
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on July 29, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on July 29, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
UK mortgage approvals exceeded expectations in June, signaling a housing market recovery. Consumer borrowing also rose significantly, driven by stable borrowing costs.
LONDON (Reuters) -British lenders approved more mortgages than expected last month, adding to signs that the housing market has recovered from a dip after the expiry of a tax break for homebuyers, and consumers also upped their borrowing, data showed on Tuesday.
The Bank of England said 64,167 mortgages were approved in June, up from 63,288 in May. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to 63,000 approvals during the month.
The expiry in April of a discount on the stamp duty paid by some homebuyers led to a drop in approvals to just over 60,000 that month before a recovery in May and June.
Richard Donnell, executive director at real estate website Zoopla, linked the rise in demand for mortgages to stable borrowing costs.
"Zoopla data shows unusually high levels of housing market activity for the early summer with sales agreed up 8% on last year and 11% more buyers in the market," Donnell said. "We expect increased housing activity to support demand for mortgages in the rest of the year."
The BoE also said unsecured consumer borrowing increased by 1.417 billion pounds ($1.89 billion) in June, stronger than the median forecast for a 1.2 billion-pound rise in the Reuters poll of economists and up from May's rise of 920 million pounds.
($1 = 0.7498 pounds)
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Alison Williams and David Milliken)
The Bank of England reported that 64,167 mortgages were approved in June, an increase from 63,288 in May.
The expiry of a discount on stamp duty for some homebuyers in April led to a drop in mortgage approvals to just over 60,000.
Zoopla data shows unusually high levels of housing market activity for early summer, with sales agreed up 8% on last year and 11% more buyers in the market.
Unsecured consumer borrowing increased by 1.417 billion pounds ($1.89 billion) in June, surpassing the median forecast of 1.2 billion pounds.
Richard Donnell from Zoopla linked the rise in demand for mortgages to stable borrowing costs, suggesting it has positively impacted the housing market.
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