UK residential mortgage product count reaches series high of 7,062

The total number of residential mortgage products available in the UK increased by 220 over the month to stand at 7,062 in early September 2025, according to the Scottish Housing Market Review Q3 2025 published on 24 October 2025. That is the highest figure recorded in the series, which began in 2008¹.

Within that total, the number of products with a maximum loan-to-value of 95% rose by 22 over the month to 464 in early September¹. The number of buy-to-let products rose from 3,231 in December 2024 to 4,597 in September 2025, the highest level since Moneyfacts records for that series began in 2011¹. Average mortgage product shelf life, the time between a product's launch and its repricing or withdrawal, was 17 days in September 2025, unchanged over the month and below the 21 days recorded in September 2024¹.

The review also sets out lending and approval figures for the UK and Scotland. Mortgage approvals for house purchase across the UK were 76,998 in July 2025, against 73,174 in July 2024, an annual increase of 5.2%. Between January and July 2025 approvals were 4.8% higher than the same period a year earlier and 31.4% higher than the same period in 2023¹.

In Scotland, 8,940 new mortgages were advanced to first-time buyers for house purchase in Q2 2025, an annual increase of 8.8%, and 8,270 were advanced to home movers, an annual increase of 6.0%. In the year to end Q2 2025, the 32,960 new mortgages advanced to first-time buyers was the highest since the year to end Q2 2022, and the 31,130 advanced to home movers was the highest since the year to end Q4 2022¹.

The mean loan-to-value ratio for first-time buyers in Scotland rose over the quarter from 82.4% to 83.4%, the highest in a series beginning in Q2 2005. The mean ratio for home movers rose from 69.6% to 70.7%, below its post-pandemic peak of 72.7% in Q2 2022¹. Across the UK, the share of regulated residential lending with a loan-to-value above 90% rose from 7.3% to 7.8% in Q2 2025, the highest share since Q2 2008. The share with both a loan-to-value above 90% and a high income multiple rose from 5.3% in Q1 2025 to 5.5% in Q2 2025¹.

Why it matters for households

The product count is a measure of how much choice is on the market rather than of what any household will pay. A larger number of products, including more at 95% loan-to-value, means more options exist for buyers with smaller deposits, though the review does not report the rates attached to those products. The buy-to-let figures cover products available to landlords, not lending completed.

The Scottish lending and loan-to-value figures relate to mortgages advanced in Scotland, while the product, approval and higher-risk lending figures cover the UK. The higher-risk share is defined by the Financial Conduct Authority as lending with a loan-to-value over 90%, or an income multiple of at least 3.5 for single-income purchasers or 2.75 for joint-income purchasers¹. The review does not report what these shares mean for individual borrowers' repayments.

Households remortgaging or extending a mortgage term are affected by the number of products on offer and by how long products stay on the market before being repriced or withdrawn. A shelf life of 17 days means a product seen one week may not be available the next.

What happens next

The review is a quarterly bulletin. The next edition, covering Q4 2025, has not been published, and no date for it is given in the Q3 2025 document¹.