UK Finance publishes January 2019 Household Finance data
Industry News | 28/02/19
Trends covering the scope of member support for UK households, through the provision of secured and unsecured loans, holdings of cash and longer-term deposits. Data is shown across lending products.
Key data highlights:
• Gross mortgage lending across the residential market in January 2019 was £21.6bn, some 1.5 per cent lower than the same month the previous year.
• The number of mortgages approved by the main high street banks in January 2019 was 0.3 per cent higher than the same month the previous year; approvals for home purchase were 1.5 per cent higher, remortgage approvals were 3.1 per cent lower and approvals for other secured borrowing were 6.8 per cent higher. This follows several months of strong growth in remortgaging earlier in 2018, as customers took advantage of a competitive mortgage market to lock into attractive deals.
• The £10.8 billion of credit card spending in January 2019 was 4.4 per cent higher than the same month the previous year. The outstanding level of credit card borrowing also grew by 4.4 per cent in the twelve months to January. Personal borrowing through loans and overdrafts grew by 4.7 per cent in the year to January.
• Personal deposits in total grew by 0.4 per cent in the year to January 2019. This suggests that the recent rise in real wages has not yet translated into higher levels of savings. Deposits held in instant access accounts were 2.4 per cent higher than last December, reflecting the preference amongst consumers to keep cash close to hand amid ongoing economic uncertainty.
