The latest Mortgage Lending Data from the FSA also found that new advances in the quarter were down 0.5% QoQ and is some 2% lower than Q4 2011. In total new advances of £152bn were made in 2012.
New commitments totalling £37bn were made in the quarter which is 3% higher than in Q3 but 0.4% lower than in Q4 last year.
The reports also revealed that despite an increase in the number of high loan to value products available it still only accounts for a small percentage of the market.
Over 90% LTV lending represented just above 2% of lending. New lending with a combination of high LTV and high income multiple was the lowest in any quarter of 2012 at 1.2%.
In terms of arrears there were 35,000 new cases in Q4 which represents a fall of 3% from the previous quarter but some 1% higher than in Q4 last year.
The total number of accounts in arrears at the end of the quarter fell by less than 1% from 303,200 in Q3, to 301,800.
This was a reduction of 4% over the year from the 313,200 accounts in arrears at the end of 2011.
