There were 30,200 first-time buyer loans in July - 3 per cent more than in June and 25 per cent up on July 2013, Council of Mortgage Lender data reveal.
By value, there was £4.6bn of lending to first-time buyers in July - 10 per cent up on June and 39 per cent higher than July last year.
Lending to home movers also grew. In July, the number of loans advanced to movers was 37,500 - 15 per cent up on the previous month and 19 per cent up on July last year.
By value, lending to movers totalled £7.2bn - 20 per cent up on June and 31 per cent up on July last year.
Remortgage lending remains muted compared with both first-time buyer and home-mover lending. The number of remortgages in July was 4 per cent up on June, but 15 per cent down on July last year.
The value of these loans (£3.9bn) was up 3 per cent on the previous month and down 5 per cent on July last year.
Buy-to-let lending grew 9 per cent over the month to £2.4bn in July - an increase of 26 per cent from £1.9bn in July last year.
Total gross lending in July grew to £19.7bn up by 10 per cent on the previous month (18 per cent up on July last year), according to the Bank of England.
Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: “The market has shown steady growth in house purchase and buy-to-let over the past few months with general improvements in economic factors across the UK allowing for more people to enter the property market.
“There have been many factors over the past year that could have caused disruption but the market has remained resilient and lenders have shown themselves adaptable to all this change.”
