This statistic illustrates the share of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) reporting the rejection of their credit applications in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2012 to 2018. It can be seen that the rejection rate of SME credit applications fluctuated during the period under observation, reaching a value of 17 percent as of 2018. The largest share of rejected credit applications for small and medium enterprises was found in 2013, when it was recorded that a share of 32 percent of all SME credit applications were rejected.

Small and medium-sized companies from Lithuania had the highest rejection rate in the European Union in 2023. The rejection rate in Lithuania reached 27 percent during, and it was followed by Romania, with a rejection rate of 19 percent. Figures can change quite dramatically per year when banks apply stricter rules.

Survey data on UK small and medium sized enterprise (SME) finance rejection rates.

The effective fixed interest rate of new consumer credit in the United Kingdom (UK) reached over nine percent in December 2024. During the first half of 2020, the interest rates for all new household lending declined sharply. However, since July 2020, interest rates for secured and unsecured loans have soared. In the first quarter of 2024, the average interest rates of personal loans in the UK remained relatively stable.

The total monthly number of mortgage approvals for the purpose of a house sale in the UK plummeted in 2020 during the COVID-10 pandemic, followed by a spike in the second half of the year. In 2021, interest rates started to rise, resulting in a decline in the volume of mortgage approvals declined. In 2024, mortgage approvals for home purchases started to increase, while remortgage approvals continued to fluctuate. Being approved for a mortgage is one of the first steps in purchasing a home, which makes it an early indicator of the development of transaction volumes. However, a mortgage approval does not necessarily mean that a sale is going to take place, as home buyers need to undergo several other steps to complete the sale: conveyancing, or the process of transferring the legal title of the property from the seller to the buyer, a property survey, contracts exchange, and closing.

Mortgage lending in the UK declined in 2023, with falling by 33 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of the year. In the second quarter of 2024, the value of new mortgage advances increased annually for the first time since the final quarter of 2024, reaching nearly 60.2 billion British pounds. That indicated an uptick in mortgage demand, possibly due to the much anticipated mortgage interest rate cuts.

The value of residential mortgage lending decreased across many European countries in the first quarter of 2024. In the UK, new lending declined from about 66.8 billion euros to 59 billion euros between the first quarters of 2023 and 2024. One of the main reasons was the worsening economic conditions and rising interest rates. Together with France and Germany, the UK make up the top three biggest markets, both in terms of gross mortgage lending and outstanding mortgage lending.