Figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that in the 12 months to November, new second charge mortgage lending came to around £2.09bn, which is up 23% year-on-year.
The number of new agreements came to 40,886 in the same period, a rise of 16% annually.
This is before the full-year figures for the 12 months to December are out, but it shows that “completion volumes [are] now reaching a scale that puts it firmly alongside other major specialist finance markets and potentially ahead when measured by the number of completed deals”, Loans Warehouse said.
| Year | New second charge mortgage lending (in £m) | Number of new agreements |
| 2020 | 727 | 17,109 |
| 2021 | 1,110 | 25,877 |
| 2022 | 1,557 | 33,772 |
| 2023 | 1,383 | 30,466 |
| 2024 | 1,726 | 35,711 |
| 2025 (to Nov) | 2,089 | 40,886 |
Source: FLA
Loans Warehouse said second charge completions now compare with the bridging sector in number of loans and lending value.
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It pointed to the Bridging & Development Lenders Association (BDLA) figures for Q1 2025, which show that bridging completions totalled £2.5bn in the period and bridging loan sizes came to around £540,000.
Loans Warehouse said that extrapolating from this, this equals around 5,000 bridging completions per quarter. This is calculated as the total completion value divided by the average loan size.
The firm said this shows that the second charge market is on a “comparable” level to bridging despite serving different borrower needs and loan sizes.
Matt Tristram, co-founder and director of Loans Warehouse, said: “Crossing £2bn is a landmark moment for second charge lending – but the bigger story is what sits behind it: completion volumes that now prove second charge is a mainstream lending route. When the market is completing nearly 4,000 loans in a single month, that’s not a niche product anymore – that’s scale.
“For years, the specialist finance conversation has focused heavily on the ‘£ value’ of markets like bridging – but consumers don’t think in those terms. From their point of view, a completed deal is a completed deal. And when you compare the likely number of bridging completions against second charge loan counts, it’s clear second charge is now firmly in that same bracket – and in pure unit terms, it may even be bigger.
“Loans Warehouse has long believed second charge should be viewed as a core part of modern advice. Whether the goal is home improvements, debt consolidation, or raising capital while preserving a competitive first charge rate, this market is now delivering outcomes at a wider level.”
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