Second charge lending fell 13.6% to £118.4m in December compared to the previous month, according to Loans Warehouse data.

This is down on November when this type of lending hit £137.8m, says the lender’s Secured Loan Index.

The number of completed loans in November was also 18% higher than the 2,500 loans completed in December.

However, average loan sizes in December beat November’s record-breaking £45,399 total, coming in at £47,394.

In the final month of last year, the average second charge loan term was 16.4 years, and contracts took 23 days to complete, just under half a day longer than in November.

The survey says the three largest loan types were for consolidations and home improvements at 40%, 36.8% were solely for consolidations and 16.9% were solely for home improvements.

The report says: “The [ December 2021] figure represents a 76% increase on December 2020 and the continuation of a boom in second charge lending that hasn’t been seen since before the credit crunch, let alone the pandemic.”

It adds that second charge lending in the fourth quarter of 2021 is the highest recorded lending of this type since the final quarter of 2008.

The index says December’s figures take total second charge lending for last year to £1.18bn from over 27,000 loans completed in the last 12 months.