Mortgage Approvals Hit 3-Year Low: What Sellers Should Do

By Lisa Hayes · 30 October 2026

Mortgage approvals for house purchase fell to 53,443 in September, the lowest since December 2023 and the third monthly drop in a row, according to Bank of England figures published on 29 October. In plain English: fewer people are getting the green light to buy, which means fewer buyers for your home. If you are thinking of selling, the buyer pool is thinner than it has been for almost three years, and you should price and plan accordingly.

What did the Bank of England figures actually show?

The Bank of England publishes its Money and Credit statistics every month, and the number that estate agents, lenders and economists watch hardest is approvals for house purchase. It counts the mortgages lenders have agreed in principle to provide, which is the stage just before a buyer can make an offer stick. Think of it as the last reliable look at demand before it turns into completed sales.

For September, the headline was 53,400 (53,443 on the more precise figure quoted by RBC Capital Markets and Reuters). August was around 54,800, so the monthly drop is modest at roughly 2.5%. The damage is in the direction of travel and the comparison with last year.

• 53,443house purchase approvals, September
• -19.4%change on a year earlier (RBC)
• 42,600remortgage approvals, up from 34,000
• 4.63%effective rate on new mortgages

Anthony Codling, managing director of equity research at RBC Capital Markets, put the year-on-year fall at 19.4%, and noted that the value of approvals was £13.7bn, down 4.9% on the month and 17.7% on the year. He also pointed out that the September figure sits 10.8% below the five-year average and 16.9% below the ten-year average. His summary was characteristically blunt: "The UK housing market is not a market with positive momentum, happy Halloween."

Net mortgage borrowing, which is new lending minus repayments, came in at £3.9bn, down from £4.2bn in August and well below the six-month average of £4.9bn, according to reporting of the Bank's data. Gross secured lending actually ticked up to £24.2bn from £23.7bn, but repayments rose too, to £21.4bn. Lots of money moving around, less of it genuinely new.

Measure	September 2026	August 2026
House purchase approvals	53,443	about 54,800
Remortgage approvals	42,600	34,000
Net mortgage borrowing	£3.9bn	£4.2bn
Effective rate, new mortgages	4.63%	4.60%
Effective rate, existing mortgages	4.03%	4.00%

A small honesty note on the numbers. Different outlets quote slightly different August figures (54,800, 54,814 and 54,900 all appear), which is the usual story of rounding and revisions. None of it changes the picture. I have used the figures that most sources agree on and I will flag where something rests on a single report.

Why does a fall in mortgage approvals matter if I am selling?

Because almost every buyer needs a mortgage, and an approval is the gate they have to pass through. Cash buyers matter, but they are a minority. When approvals fall, the number of people who can actually exchange contracts on your house falls with them, whatever the portals say about "interest".

This is why Jeremy Leaf, the north London agent and former RICS residential chairman, called approvals "arguably the best barometer of future market activity". Asking prices are what sellers hope for. Rightmove and Zoopla indices tell you what is listed. Approvals tell you what is likely to complete in the following two to three months, and that is the number that decides whether your sale happens.

Three months of falling approvals means we are looking at a quiet run into winter and probably a sluggish start to 2027. Agents like to say that January brings a wave of new buyers. It usually does. This year, that wave is arriving into a shrinking pool of people who can borrow.

Why are approvals falling?

There is no single culprit, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. The reasons stack up.

Mortgage rates have climbed. The Bank's own figures show the effective rate on newly drawn mortgages at 4.63%, up from 4.60%. That is an average across all borrowers, including those with big deposits and long-standing deals. Fresh fixed rates for ordinary buyers are higher: reporting of Moneyfacts data this week put average two and five-year fixes just under 6%. Simon Gammon of Knight Frank Finance said activity "continued to soften through September as mortgage rates climbed", which matches what brokers have been telling me for weeks.

Inflation is back above 3%. Consumer price inflation stood at 3.5% in the latest figures, as covered in our piece on recent inflation data. That has pushed lenders' funding costs up and made the Bank of England reluctant to cut. The market now expects the next move in Bank Rate to be upwards, with a decision due on 5 November. One report this week put Bank Rate at 3.75% with a rise to 4% widely expected. I have only seen that specific level in one source, so treat it as indicative until the Bank confirms.

Confidence has dipped. Tomer Aboody of MT Finance said the decline "reflects low confidence with the current government". You can agree or disagree with the politics, but the point stands: months of Budget speculation about property taxes made some buyers sit on their hands. The Budget has now landed, and as we covered, there was no stamp duty change. Whether that clears the air quickly is another matter.

Affordability is stretched. Even where rates dip a little, a household taking on a mortgage at nearly 6% is not the same as one that borrowed at 2% five years ago. Lenders stress-test affordability, so buyers who could have borrowed £250,000 last year may be approved for far less now. Fewer buyers clear the bar, and those who do bid lower.

Why did remortgage approvals jump 25% while purchase approvals fell?

This is the part of the release that most headlines skim over, and it is worth slowing down for. Remortgage approvals rose to 42,600 from 34,000, a jump of about 25%. Some reporters have presented that as a sign of life in the mortgage market. It is not good news for sellers.

Remortgaging is mostly existing owners switching lender or locking in a new deal before rates climb further. Wren News notes that the series chiefly captures switching to a different lender, not every product transfer with your current one. Either way, these are people staying put, not people buying your house. They are protecting themselves from a payment shock, which tells you how worried borrowers are about what happens next.

It also points to a quiet problem for the sales market. Plenty of homeowners who might have moved are now deciding that their old low-rate deal is too valuable to give up. Why sell and take on a mortgage at 5.5% when you can stay on 3%? That reluctance cuts both ways: fewer listings, but also fewer chain-forming movers who would normally buy the next property up.

What does this mean for house prices?

Not a crash, but certainly not support. When approvals fall, prices tend to soften with a lag. The ONS reported annual house price growth of 0.9% in its latest release, and the Halifax and Nationwide indices have been hovering near flat. We have been reporting for weeks that a third of homes are now losing value. September's approvals are consistent with a market where the average price barely moves, while individual houses either sell at a discount or sit unsold.

There is a trap in average figures. A flat national average hides large differences between a well-presented three-bed with a garage in a commuter town and an overpriced flat in a city with too much supply. The first will sell. The second will drift. If you want a realistic idea of where yours sits, start with a proper local comparison through our house valuation guide and cross-check against the wider picture on our house prices page.

What are agents and brokers saying?

The trade reaction was almost uniformly cautious. John Phillips, chief executive of Just Mortgages and Spicerhaart, said the slowdown in approvals "really typifies the challenges facing the market". Nathan Emerson of Propertymark described the dip as "disappointing, yet understandable", and pointed to inflation at 3.5% as part of the explanation. Richard Pinch of Broadstone said the decline points to a market "under increasing pressure".

I would add a bit of interpretation to those quotes, because trade bodies tend to couch things in careful language. The translation is: there are fewer buyers, they are borrowing less, and they have more choice. That is a buyer's market in every way except the official label.

How does the regional picture look?

The Bank's Money and Credit release is national, so I will not pretend it tells us what is happening in Leeds compared with Lewisham. What we know from other recent indices is that the north and Scotland have been more resilient than London and the South East, mainly because they are more affordable and rely less on large mortgages. Our recent coverage of Zoopla's index showed northern regions outperforming the south for exactly this reason.

If you are in the South East or London, where average mortgages are large, falling approvals bite harder. A buyer needing £500,000 is far more sensitive to rate changes than one needing £150,000. Likewise, flats continue to struggle compared with houses. In practice, you are more likely to feel this release if your home is expensive, mortgage-dependent in terms of its buyer pool, or a flat.

• Sensitive to higher rates: London flats very high
• South East family homes high
• Midlands houses moderate
• Northern and Scottish houses lower

That bar chart is my own illustrative judgement of relative sensitivity, not a published statistic. It is there to show the logic: the bigger the typical loan, the more a change in rates or approvals matters.

How does this compare with the last few years?

Context helps. September's 53,443 is lower than anything since December 2023, which was the tail end of the last rate-shock period. It sits 10.8% below the five-year average and 16.9% below the ten-year average, according to RBC. In normal times, approvals bounce around the high 50,000s to 60,000s. Before the pandemic, approvals regularly ran well above that.

The six-month average is about 58,800, which tells you that this is a fairly steep slide rather than a gentle slope. Falling nine per cent below that average in a single month is not a trivial drift. It is also worth remembering that approvals are a flow measure. A drop this size feeds through to completions roughly two to three months later, so the weak numbers we see now will show up in the sales data for December and January.

On the plus side, this is not 2008. Lenders are not refusing to lend. Deposits are healthier, unemployment is manageable, and forced sellers are rare. This is a slow, rate-driven squeeze rather than a credit crunch.

What does it mean if you are selling right now?

Start from the uncomfortable truth: you are competing for a smaller group of mortgage-approved buyers, and every one of them has several alternatives. You can't change the national approvals figure. You can change how your property looks against its rivals.

Price for the buyers who exist, not the ones you remember. If your neighbour sold for £340,000 in spring, that is a data point from a stronger market. Buyers today are armed with affordability calculators and lower borrowing limits. Overpricing by 5% is the single most common reason homes sit on the market for months. You can read more about how long properties are taking in our recent time-to-sell analysis.

Make yourself easy to buy. Buyers who have a mortgage agreement in principle but a nervous lender want certainty. That means having your legal pack ready, your property information forms completed, your EPC valid and any known issues (damp, a missing certificate, a lease question) disclosed early. A sale that falls through is more damaging in a weak market because you lose weeks.

Watch the chain. A thinner pool of buyers means a higher chance that someone in your chain pulls out or gets a reduced offer from their own lender. If you are worried, our guide to repairing a broken property chain explains what to do when the dominoes start to wobble.

Think about the whole timeline, not just the headline price. A slightly lower offer from a chain-free buyer who completes in six weeks can be worth more than a higher offer that takes five months and might collapse. Holding costs (mortgage interest, council tax, insurance, utilities) add up quickly.

Should you sell now or wait?

I get asked this a lot, and I will give you a straight answer: it depends on why you are selling, and nobody can promise you that waiting will deliver a better price.

If you need to move for work, family, probate, or to get out of a mortgage whose rate is about to jump, waiting is a gamble with the odds against you. The data point towards softer demand through the winter, and a Bank Rate rise next week would not help. If you do not need to move, and your current mortgage is cheap, there is no reward for rushing. Pick a window, such as the spring market, prepare the house well, and list it when you have done the groundwork.

The one thing I would warn against is waiting for a dramatic rebound. Nothing in this release suggests one. Forecasters, including the OBR, have been revising their house price expectations downwards, as we covered in our Budget analysis. A slow thaw in 2027 is plausible. A sharp bounce is not.

What are the alternatives to waiting on the open market?

When approvals fall, the proportion of buyers who don't depend on a mortgage becomes more interesting. That means cash buyers and the specialist companies that buy quickly. They typically offer less than full market value, often 10% to 25% below, in exchange for speed and certainty. That is a real cost and I will not dress it up. But if you are facing repossession risk, a probate deadline, a stalled chain, or a property that is hard to mortgage, a guaranteed sale can be worth more than a hypothetical higher price that never completes.

Our guide to selling a house fast and our explainer on cash house buyers set out how these offers work, what to watch out for, and how to compare them. If any terms in this article are unfamiliar, the property jargon explained page translates the industry vocabulary into normal English.

My rule of thumb is simple. Get at least three offers, whichever route you take. Ask what fees are deducted, how long completion takes, and whether the price is guaranteed or can be reduced after a survey. Reputable buyers will answer without fuss.

What happens next, and what should you watch?

Three dates and data points matter over the next few weeks.

5 November: Bank of England decision. The Monetary Policy Committee is due to announce its decision at midday, alongside a new Monetary Policy Report. Markets are pricing in a rise, according to this week's reporting. If the Bank moves, expect lenders to reprice within days, which would push the cost of new mortgages up again. If it holds, there may be a small relief rally in swap rates.

Early November: Halifax and Nationwide. Their October price indices will show whether the approvals weakness has started to appear in prices. Keep an eye on the monthly change, not the annual figure, because annual growth is propped up by earlier months.

30 November: next Money and Credit release. October's approvals will tell us whether September was a floor or just a step on the way down. Given where rates are heading, I would not bet on a rebound.

Is this just a blip?

Three consecutive falls is a trend, even if it is a gentle one. The monthly decline in September was only about 2.5%, so I am not calling this a collapse. But the cumulative picture is clear: from around 58,800 as a six-month average to 53,443 is a meaningful slide, and it is happening against rising rates, high inflation and fragile confidence.

To be fair to the optimists, a few things could turn this around. A pause in Bank Rate, a fall in swap rates, or a wave of lender competition could revive demand quickly. Mortgage markets are volatile, and sentiment can shift in a fortnight. But hoping for a turnaround is not a plan. Selling plans should be built on the market you have.

Frequently asked questions

What are mortgage approvals and why do they matter?

Mortgage approvals count the home loans lenders have agreed in principle for house purchase. They are a leading indicator of sales because most buyers need approval before they can complete, usually within two to three months.

How many mortgage approvals were there in September 2026?

About 53,400, or 53,443 on the more precise figure reported by RBC Capital Markets, according to Bank of England data published on 29 October 2026. That is the lowest since December 2023.

Does a fall in approvals mean house prices will fall?

Not automatically, but it removes support for prices. Fewer approved buyers means more competition between sellers, so homes that are overpriced tend to sit or sell at a discount while well-priced ones still move.

Why did remortgage approvals rise while purchase approvals fell?

Existing homeowners are switching deals to protect themselves from higher rates. Remortgage approvals rose to 42,600 from 34,000, but those borrowers are staying in their homes, so it does not add buyers to the market.

Will the Bank of England raise interest rates in November?

A decision is due on 5 November, and markets and several economists expect a rise, according to reporting this week. Nobody knows until the Bank announces it, so watch for the midday announcement.

Is now a bad time to sell my house?

It is a more competitive time, not necessarily a bad one. Well-priced, well-presented homes are still selling. If you need to sell, focus on realistic pricing and a smooth, certain sale rather than waiting for conditions to change.

What if I can't wait for a buyer who needs a mortgage?

Cash buyers and quick-sale companies can complete in weeks, usually at a discount to market value. Compare several offers and check the fees, timeline and whether the price is guaranteed before you commit.

Where can I check the figures myself?

The Bank of England publishes the Money and Credit release monthly on its website, with the next edition due on 30 November 2026. Trade press such as The Negotiator also summarises each release with comments from lenders and brokers.

The bottom line

September's mortgage approvals are not a disaster, but they are a clear warning. Buyer demand is shrinking at the same time as borrowing costs rise, and the data are consistent across lenders, brokers and economists. If you are selling, treat this as the market you are in: price sharply, prepare thoroughly, and keep your options open.

If you want to see what a quick, certain sale might look like next to a traditional listing, you can compare offers for your home in a couple of minutes. There is no obligation, and it gives you a real number to weigh against what the open market might deliver. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do in a slow market is know your alternatives.

Figures are as reported from the Bank of England's Money and Credit release for September 2026 by RBC Capital Markets (via The Negotiator), Reuters, Today's Conveyancer, Wren News and Planning Geek. Quotes are attributed to the named individuals as published in those reports. This article is general information, not financial advice.