Second charge lending falls by 9% in February

Second charge lending decreased by 8.79% in February 2023 to £95.3 million, according to research from Loans Warehouse in partnership with Insights, Barcadia Media's independent market research portal.

This represents a decrease in year-on-year lending of 45.24% compared to February 2022, the figures reported directly to Loans Warehouse from second charge lenders show.

More noticeably, this is the first time lending has dropped below £100m since August 2021.

Matt Tristram, managing director of Loans Warehouse, commented: "We also observed a big dip in higher LTV lending compared to January 2023 with a dip of 3.59% seen in loans written above 85% LTV.

"More positively, service continues to improve with the average completion time from pack received to funding now down to 14.9 days.

"The decrease in volume is being addressed by lenders within the sector with Spring, West One, Selina Finance and UTB all making rate reductions in the last month and predictions for March are for a significant increase in lending as funding becomes more secure."

To see the full report, visit https://www.project-insights.co.uk/securedloanindex/february-2023.