The value of residential loans advanced to first-time buyers increased over the second quarter of 2015 to £10.8bn from £8.9bn, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority.
The second quarter mortgage lender statistics also revealed an increase in value terms of buy-to-let lending over the past year - from £7bn advanced in the second quarter of 2014 to £8.3bn in the same period in 2015.
Data is collected through the Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Return provided by around 300 regulated firms, providing data on their mortgage lending activities.
These returns showed the overall value of the residential loan amounts outstanding was £1,272bn in the second quarter this year, an increase of 0.8 per cent compared with the first quarter and an increase of 1.8 per cent over the last four quarters.
The proportion of gross advances at loan-to-values over 90 per cent increased by 0.2 percentage points over the quarter to 3.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the proportion of gross advances that is a combination of an LTV over 90 per cent and loan-to-income multiple of over 3.5x for single income borrowers (or 2.75 times for joint income borrowers) increased by 0.2 percentage points over the quarter to 2.3 per cent.
The Bank of England and FCA statistics came as research from Connells Survey & Valuation found remortgaging activity has soared in August, outperforming all other areas of the housing market.
The number of valuations for remortgaging rose 25 per cent in August compared with July.
On the back of this growth, the number of remortgage valuations is now up by 102 per cent compared with August 2014 – a doubling in the space of 12 months.
Total valuation activity was more muted in August. The number of valuations across all sectors, including remortgaging, rose by 7 per cent compared with July. This leaves activity up by 48 per cent compared with August 2014, driven in large part by remortgaging.
peter.walker@ft.com
