Number of homeowners with mortgage debt on the rise

June 8, 2025 by Brendan O'Neill

Mortgage Advisors

The latest figures to be released show that the number of homeowners in the UK who have mortgage debt is on the rise, which is being blamed on poor decision-making.

That finding comes from the Financial Lives Survey carried out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The actual figures reveal that there has been a sharp increase in the number of people who still owe over £300,000 of their mortgages. Back in 2017, there were just 5% of homeowners in that position, but the figure had risen to 9% by last year.

In terms of the various UK regions, London is the one where the situation is most severe. The number of people in that city who still owe more than £300,000 is 28%, whereas in 2017 it was 17%.

That is not the only alarming finding to be uncovered by the survey. It also found that 14% of people with mortgages have debts that exceed their annual incomes by four times or more. In 2017, there were 11% of people in that situation.

Over one out of every five people that took part in the survey said that they had not bothered to look into switching to a product from a different lender. The FCA highlighted this is an example of the sort of mistakes that borrowers are making. It pointed out that product switching can make a real difference to how much people have to pay per month.

This proves once again the value of seeking help from an advisor with CeMAP training.