Lenders reported that demand for secured lending for house purchase decreased significantly in Q4 - and this trend is expected to continue, with further demand decreases anticipated in Q1. However, demand for secured lending for remortgaging increased slightly in Q4, but demand for that too was expected to decrease slightly in Q1.
Lenders reported that the availability of secured credit to households had decreased in the three months to end-November 2018 (Q4) and was expected to increase slightly over the next three months to end-February 2019 (Q1).
Defaults remained unchanged in Q4 for secured lending - but unsecured lending increased due to an increase in defaults on credit cards.
