Mortgage holders are continuing to utilise the FCA's Mortgage Charter rules to lock into new deals early, temporarily switch to interest-only payments, or extend their mortgage term.
The Charter, introduced in June 2023, contains commitments, over and above FCA requirements, made by mortgage lenders. There are 49 signatories, representing around 90% of the mortgage market.
These commitments include:
- not to force a borrower to leave their home without their consent, unless in exceptional circumstances, in less than a year from their first missed payment,
- to allow customers to lock in a new deal up to six months ahead of the end of a fixed rate deal, and to request a better like-for-like deal up until the new one starts, if one is available,
- without assessing affordability, to permit customers who are up to date with their payments to switch to interest-only payments for six months, or to extend their mortgage term with the option to revert to their original term within six months.
Key findings
In the latest two-month period (November to December 2025) around 232,000 mortgages locked into a new deal up to six months ahead of maturity. In addition, the number of mortgages that, after locking into a new deal up to 6 months before maturity, subsequently locked into an alternative deal, was around 48,000 in November to December 2025.
In total, around 214,000 mortgages have temporarily reduced monthly payments via the FCA rules since launch.
Between July 2023 and December 2025, the monthly payments on around 311,000 mortgages were reduced as people switched to temporarily paying interest-only or extended their mortgage term. This is around 3.5% of regulated mortgage contracts. The data shows that only 1,584 term extensions were reversed, which could indicate that borrowers seeking a temporary reduction in their payments are more likely to opt for an interest-only period.
In November to December 2025, around 13,000 mortgages saw a reduction in monthly payments due to a temporary switch to interest-only or a term extension.
317 properties were repossessed within 12 months of missing the first payment. Firms report these were for customer-driven reasons, for example voluntary possessions or abandoned/vacant properties.
