The value of mortgages not taken up by home buyers hit a record high of £8.7bn in Q1 after a rise in cancellations year-on-year, according to the latest Bank of England (BoE) data analysed by Novus Strategy.

Mortgage cancellations were up 6.1% to 35,144 in Q1, despite a 2.7% fall in the number of mortgage approvals in the final quarter of last year compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

The value of cancellations between January and March was up 12.3% from £7.7bn in Q1 2025.

Claire Van der Zant, CEO of Novus Strategy, said: “The sheer weight of cancellations continues to inflict a lot of pain on lenders.

“This is one of the most-watched metrics inside banks and building societies, and these industry-wide figures illustrate the scale of the problem but also the opportunity.

“Reducing the volume and value of cancellations is one of the easiest ways lenders can boost their bottom line over the next decade but the solution is not an inward-facing one. A revolution is unfolding in homebuying, but it’s one that requires everyone involved to take an ecosystem view, not least because the homebuying journey is being redesigned.

“It’s no longer about internal digitisation, it’s about wider transformation delivered by integrating horizontally for interoperability. We’ve got to bring speed-to-completion down and allow everyone, including businesses, to share in the benefits of a more efficient property market.”

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