Government · UK · Bank of England
UK net mortgage lending climbs to £6.2bn in March 2026
UK households took on £6.2 billion of net mortgage debt in March 2026, comfortably above the six-month average of £4.9 billion, and consumer credit annual growth accelerated to 8.9%. The data points to a UK borrower base that is still spending and still buying property, despite headline confidence indicators sitting at multi-year lows.
Source published Summarised
Key findings at a glance
- £6.2bn Net borrowing of mortgage debt by UK individuals in March 2026, up from £5.2 billion in February and above the previous six-month average of £4.9 billion.
- 63,500 Net mortgage approvals for house purchases in March, up from 62,700 in February and slightly above the six-month average of 63,200.
- 51,300 Mortgage approvals for remortgaging with a different lender in March, up from 41,200 in February, a near 24% month-on-month rise.
- 4.03% Effective interest rate on newly drawn UK mortgages in March, down 7 basis points from 4.10% in February.
- 8.9% Annual growth rate for all UK consumer credit in March, up from 8.6% in February. Credit-card borrowing growth accelerated to 12.3% over the same period.
- £1.9bn Net consumer credit borrowing in March, marginally lower than the £2.0 billion seen in February but still above the previous six-month average of £1.8 billion.
- 21.63% Effective interest rate on interest-charging UK credit cards in March, broadly flat on February's 21.65% despite the easing in mortgage rates.
- £4.4bn Households' net deposits into ISAs in March, the largest single contributor to a £5.5 billion overall increase in household deposits.
- 11.7% Annual growth rate of bank borrowing by large UK non-financial businesses in March, up from 10.6% in February.
- 3.7% Annual growth rate of bank borrowing by UK SMEs in March, up from 2.9% in February. Effective rate on new SME loans fell 15 basis points to 6.11%.
What the report covers
The Bank of England's Money and Credit release is a monthly statistical bulletin covering net borrowing and deposit flows across UK households and businesses, along with effective interest rates and aggregate monetary measures. The March 2026 edition reports data through the end of March on a seasonally adjusted basis, spanning mortgages, consumer credit, household deposits, business lending and the M4ex and M4Lex aggregates.
March's data shows mortgage activity firming clearly above the recent six-month trend, an outsized step up in remortgaging volume (approvals up to 51,300 from 41,200), and consumer credit growth ticking higher for a fourth consecutive month. On the business side, both large UK firms and SMEs grew their bank borrowing meaningfully, with new SME loan rates dropping 15 basis points.
The release sits alongside the BoE's monthly Effective Rates and Capital Issuance bulletins and is treated by economists as a near real-time read on household and corporate balance-sheet behaviour. It pairs naturally with the ONS retail sales data on the consumer-spending side, which we covered in our coverage of Deloitte's Q1 2026 Consumer Tracker.
What this means for UK marketers
The first signal for UK ecommerce planners is the 8.9% annual growth rate in consumer credit, with credit-card borrowing growing 12.3% year on year. Effective card rates are still painful at 21.63%, yet households are continuing to lean on revolving credit. For brands selling clothing, electronics, homeware and other considered-purchase categories under £500, the read is that demand has not retreated in the way headline confidence indicators imply. Holding the line on prospecting and upper-funnel budgets through Q2 2026 makes more sense than pulling back, and a well-structured UK digital marketing programme should be tilted toward acquiring new buyers while the credit channel is open.
The bigger surprise sits in the housing data. Net mortgage borrowing at £6.2 billion is well above trend, house-purchase approvals are stable at 63,500, and the effective rate on new mortgages eased to 4.03%. The standout is the 24% jump in remortgaging approvals, a sign that fixed-rate deals taken out in 2023 are rolling off and households are actively shopping around. Mortgage brokers, debt consolidators, kitchen retailers, furniture brands and home-improvement businesses should be lifting paid budgets across Google and Meta for the next two quarters while remortgage churn runs hot. The household-finance picture is also tightening in places: our coverage of the Resolution Foundation's £480 energy-cost finding is the necessary balance to this report's optimism.
On the B2B side, March showed both large UK firms and SMEs raising bank borrowing materially. SME annual borrowing growth ticked up to 3.7%, large-firm growth to 11.7%, and new SME loan rates fell 15 basis points to 6.11%. For B2B marketers, this is the clearest credit-channel opening since the 2023 rate cycle. Small UK businesses are accessing finance again, and demand-generation campaigns that have been muted across 2024 and into 2025 should be tested at scale. The wider retail context, captured by the ONS Retail Sales bulletin, supports the read on discretionary spend. Brands targeting SME buyers in software, accounting, business banking, fleet, plant hire and B2B services should rotate to higher-funnel creative and retest cold prospecting through a focused Google Ads programme while the credit data backs up the spend.
How they got the data
The Money and Credit release uses regulatory data submitted monthly by UK monetary financial institutions (banks and building societies) under the Bank of England's statistical reporting framework. Figures are seasonally adjusted (with the exception of certain detail lines) and cover sterling-only flows. The release distinguishes between gross lending, repayments and net lending. Mortgage approvals are reported net of cancellations, which the BoE flags as a leading indicator of future borrowing.
Consumer credit is split into credit-card borrowing and other consumer credit (car dealership finance and personal loans). Business borrowing is broken out between large non-financial businesses, SMEs and public corporations. Aggregate money (M4ex) and lending (M4Lex) exclude intermediate other financial corporations to give a cleaner read on the real economy. All figures are subject to revision in subsequent monthly releases.
Government · UK
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From Bank of England · published 01/05/2026