As many as 41,657 second charge mortgages were completed in 2025, figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show. This marks the strongest annual performance for the sector in almost two decades.
A second charge mortgage is a loan you take out on your property alongside your mortgage. People often use them to raise money for home renovations, debt consolidation or other reasons.
By comparison, the wider remortgage market is significantly larger but only a portion of those loans involve borrowers releasing additional equity.
Forecasts from UK Finance indicate that the UK external remortgage market reached approximately £76 billion of lending in 2025.
Based on typical UK mortgage loan sizes of around £180,000 to £200,000, this level of lending equates to an estimated around 400,000 remortgage transactions during the year.
Industry data suggests that between 20% and 30% of remortgages involve borrowers raising additional capital rather than simply refinancing their existing mortgage balance.
Using a midpoint estimate of 25%, this indicates that roughly 100,000 remortgages in 2025 included additional borrowing.
When combined with 41,657 second charge mortgages, the total number of mortgages used for capital raising in 2025 is estimated to be around 141,000 loans.
It means second charge mortgages accounted for approximately 29% of all capital-raising mortgage transactions during the year.
Matt Tristram, co-founder of Loans Warehouse, a second charge mortgage broker, said the data highlighted the increasing role second charge lending played in helping homeowners access equity.
“Second charge mortgages are often discussed as a specialist lending product, but when you look at the numbers they are now supporting a significant share of homeowners raising capital from their property,” he said.
“With more than 41,000 second charge loans completed in 2025, the sector now represents roughly one in three mortgages used to raise additional borrowing.”
The figures also underline the scale of activity within the second charge sector itself.
The 41,657 loans completed in 2025 equate to almost 3,500 second charge mortgages per month, or more than 800 loans each week.
Loans Warehouse said the data demonstrated how second charge mortgages have become a significant part of the UK mortgage landscape, supporting tens of thousands of homeowners each year.