The aggregate mortgage data, compiled by the CML, covers Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Santander UK, RBS, and Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, who together represent about 73% of the total mortgage market. These lenders are also publishing their own lending data by postcode on an individual basis.
The data shows that, unsurprisingly, London has the greatest value of outstanding residential mortgage loans, with over £227 billion outstanding. By comparison, the North East - where house prices are much lower than in the capital - had the lowest value of outstanding loans with £25 billion.
The disparity between the housing markets of the north and the south are clear within the data - combined, the North East, the North West and Yorkshire & the Humber totalled £162 billion of outstanding mortgage lending, less than just London alone. The data for just the South West and the South East, without London's data, totals £240 billion for the two areas - far higher than that of the three northern regions combined.
CML director general Paul Smee comments:
"As you would expect, strong levels of mortgage lending are broadly correlated with those areas where there is a strong resident population. While the dataset covers only three quarters of the mortgage lending market, it certainly shows that there are reassuringly few surprises in the postcode distribution of mortgage lending."
Commenting BBA Chief Executive Anthony Browne said:
“This publication shows the amounts that households and businesses are borrowing in the vast majority of postcode sectors across Britain. It is a move that makes the British financial services industry significantly more transparent.
“Lenders are supplying vital funding to SMEs across the country – proportionately, they are lending more to businesses across Britain than to those in London and the South East, though borrowing generally reflects the geographic distribution of businesses in the country.”
