In October, the second charge mortgage reported further strong new business growth by both value and volume compared with the same month in 2023.

In the ten months to October 2024, new business volumes were 17% higher than in the same period in 2023.

Commenting on the latest figures Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) director of consumer & mortgage finance and inclusion Fiona Hoyle, said: “Housing market activity has begun to pick up since the Bank of England started to cut Bank rate in the second half of this year.”

She added: “The distribution of new business by purpose of loan in October showed that the proportion of new agreements which were for the consolidation of existing loans was 58.4%; for home improvements and the consolidation of existing loans was 23.3%; and for home improvements only was 12.4%.”