ONS figures show 717,519 mortgage sales in the UK in 2025 — up 16 per cent on 2024 and the highest annual total since 2021, yet still 34.5 per cent below 2006 levels.
The UK recorded 717,519 mortgage sales in 2025, up from 617,295 in 2024, according to figures posted by the Office for National Statistics. That’s a year-on-year rise of around 16 per cent — but the total still sits more than a third below the 2006 peak, before the global financial crisis reshaped lending standards and buyer behaviour across the country.
First-time buyers are now driving the market in a way they simply weren’t two decades ago. The figures show they accounted for around 52.8 per cent of all mortgage sales in 2025, compared with around 33.8 per cent in 2006. Around 380,700 first-time buyer mortgages were completed last year, up roughly 16 per cent on 2024. And they’re borrowing more relative to property values — the median loan-to-value ratio for first-time buyers rose from 85.0 per cent in 2024 to 85.6 per cent in 2025, the highest level since before the 2008 financial crisis.
The ONS analysis draws on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Mortgage Product Sales Data, which regulated lenders have been required to submit since 2005. Across all mortgage types, around 1.08 million new transactions were recorded in 2025, including remortgages. Remortgage completions rose from about 289,000 in 2024 to roughly 324,000 in 2025 — a 12 per cent increase. Lifetime mortgage sales came in at around 23,300, up about 5 per cent on the previous year.
Mortgage brokers handled about 83 per cent of all transactions by volume. Revenue from mortgage broking rose by around 15.9 per cent to roughly £1.6 billion in 2025 — a figure that reflects both higher volumes and, likely, the complexity of deals being arranged.
Longer terms are now the norm. About 72 per cent of all completions — roughly 788,000 mortgages — were written on terms of more than 20 years. Critics have suggested this shifts financial risk towards younger borrowers over the long run, even if it makes monthly repayments more manageable in the short term.
The overall picture is one of recovery, but a qualified one. Sales are growing, first-time buyers are more active than ever, and broker revenues are up sharply. Yet the market is still processing the legacy of post-2008 lending constraints — and with LTV ratios at their highest in nearly two decades, questions about affordability and resilience to any future rate rises are unlikely to go away soon.
Source: @ONS