However, year-on-year, this was a 3.8 per cent rise from £63.4bn in Q1 2019, despite including the start of the coronavirus restrictions.
The value of new mortgage agreements reached £67.6bn in the first quarter of the year, a 6.1 per cent growth compared to the same period a year before. Quarterly, this was down from £70.6bn.
The share of mortgage lending with loan to values (LTV) higher than 90 per cent was 5.2 per cent, a nominal 0.7 per cent rise on the first quarter last year. The share of buy-to-let lending remained unchanged at 14 per cent.
Of the 86 per cent share of lending attributed to owner occupier clients, 47 per cent was for house purchases up 0.9 per cent on the previous quarter and 32.1 per cent were remortgages. This was a 1.2 per cent fall on the value of remortgages in Q1 2019.
Further advances and other mortgages accounted for 6.9 per cent of lending during the quarter.
Of the 47 per cent of owner occupier house purchases, first-time buyers accounted for 19.8 per cent and homemovers accounted for 27.2 per cent. These were year-on-year increases of 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.
Arrears on the rise
The value of outstanding mortgages with arrears of at least 1.5 per cent of the outstanding mortgage balance rose by 1.8 per cent during the quarter to £13.7bn.
This now accounts for 0.91 per cent of all outstanding mortgage balances, up from 0.89 per cent in Q4.
Effect of bank rate drop
The share of mortgage lending with interest rates less than two per cent above the bank rate dropped significantly by 10.2 per cent to 73.2 per cent. BoE said this was likely a result of the bank rate falling to 0.1 per cent in March, rather than lender changes.
The share of mortgages with interest rates more than two per cent but less than three per cent above bank rate rose to 19.1 per cent.
Mortgages with rates three per cent higher than the bank rate rose to 7.8 per cent, the highest level since Q2 2018.
