£500k mortgages no longer just for London buyers
There has been a surge in mortgage loans of £500,000 and more being borrowed to purchase homes outside London, as larger mortgages become more common across the UK.
Analysis from Savills showed that the rise in £500,000-plus mortgages was being driven by buyers outside of Southern England, rising by 18% since 2021. Conversely, the number of £500,000-plus mortgages has fallen in London and the South East by 2.4% and 2.3% respectively.
By contrast, there was a 17% increase in £500,000-plus mortgages in the Midlands, 16% in the North and 28% across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the same period.
Year-on-year, the number of homeowners taking out half-million-pound mortgages increased by 24% in 2025, and despite the decline, the capital accounted for 42% of all £500,000-plus mortgages.
Some 62,391 mortgages of £500,000 or more were issued in 2025, accounting for 5.8% of all mortgage lending and representing around one in 17 mortgages.
This was 24% higher than in 2024 but 9% below the market peak in 2022.
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Savills said this rise demonstrated how higher house prices had increased borrowing requirements, which also aligned with a rise in the cost of servicing larger loans due to surging interest rates.
Its research found that the annual cost of servicing a new £500,000 mortgage rose from £25,100 in August 2021 to £34,100 this year, a 36% rise.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said: “The half-million-pound mortgage is no longer solely the preserve of buyers in London and the South East. While those markets still account for the largest share of high-value lending, growth over the past five years has increasingly come from elsewhere in the country as rising house prices and accumulated housing equity have enabled more households to take on larger loans.
“Despite higher borrowing costs, greater flexibility in affordability stress testing has helped more higher-earning households access mortgages of £500,000 and above. At the very top end of the market, private banks can often take a more flexible and innovative approach than mainstream lenders, broadening access to larger loans.”
