Mortgage Approvals

Mortgage Approvals means net mortgage approvals for house purchase, the Bank of England headline count of loans approved minus cancelled.

It records the number of approvals and their value in sterling billions, seasonally adjusted to remove regular seasonal and calendar effects.

It covers United Kingdom residents borrowing in sterling from banks, building societies and other specialist lenders.

It does not measure money paid out, as approvals lead future borrowing rather than record completed lending.

Remortgaging captures only agreements with a different lender, so it understates total remortgaging activity.

Figures from the second part differ in scope from broad money lending in the first part, so direct comparison misleads.

The Bank publishes Money and Credit about 30 days after the reference month ends, at 09:30.

Each release presents text with main points, Tables A to N, charts, a Highs and Lows file and summary tables.

Visual summaries accompany the release alongside Effective Rates, Capital Issuance and Bankstats tables.

Markets read each level against the average over the prior 6 months and against past records, with no set threshold.

Earlier months can revise between editions, so no past figure stays frozen.

Headline house purchase moves with 3 purpose splits in Table I, Approvals of loans secured on dwellings.

• Total: all purpose approvals secured on homes, adjusted alone, so it can differ from the sum of parts.
• House purchase: new home loans approved minus cancelled, the headline lead for future borrowing.
• Remortgaging: only moves to a different lender, approved minus cancelled, so it understates full remortgaging.
• Other: remaining loans secured on homes, approved minus cancelled, outside purchase and remortgaging.

A past example reported house purchase approvals of 61039 with value 11.5 sterling billions and total approvals of 121482.

Remortgaging stood at 46475 after prior readings of 51575 and 53890, showing how parts can diverge.

In the same release secured lending grew 3.3% with net lending of 3.7 sterling billions, holding steady.

Soft approvals alongside steady lending show weak counts signal softer borrowing ahead rather than past weakness.

1. Collect: Lenders including banks, building societies and specialist lenders report approvals and cancellations for the month.
2. Net off cancellations: Subtract cancelled offers from gross approvals to reach net approvals.
3. Split by purpose: Divide net approvals into house purchase, remortgaging with a different lender only and other, keeping number and sterling billions value.
4. Seasonally adjust: Remove regular seasonal and calendar effects with X-13ARIMA-SEATS, reviewed on a regular cycle.

Approvals are offers net of cancellations that lead borrowing ahead, not money paid out.

Remortgaging misses same lender deals, and the second part does not compare directly with broad money lending in the first part.