There were more than 100,000 extra mortgage sales agreed in 2025 compared with a year earlier, but the figures are still a more than a third lower than 20 years ago, new research reveals.
There were 717,519 mortgage sales across the UK in 2025, up from 617,295 in 2024, the highest annual total since 2021, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
For the first time, the ONS analysed mortgage sales in the UK between 2006 and 2025, drawing on data from the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Mortgage Product Sales.
The figures revealed huge differences in consumer and market behaviour over the past two decades. For example, the rate of mortgage sales in 2025 was more than a third lower (34.5% below) than it was in 2006.
First-time buyers accounted for more than half (52.8%) of all mortgage sales in 2025, compared with around one-third (33.8%) in 2006, reflecting a substantial shift in the composition of the mortgage market.
The UK median loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for first-time buyers increased to 85.6% in 2025, its highest level since before the financial crisis.
London had the lowest first-time buyer LTV ratio (80.2%), while Scotland, Wales and the North East of England recorded some of the highest ratios.
The figures also reveal that the average UK loan-to-income (LTI) ratio increased to 3.5 in 2025 for all mortgage sales and to 3.6 for first-time buyers, meaning people are borrowing three and a half times their income on mortgages.
