First-time buyers borrowed £5.5bn in June, up 28 per cent on May and 25 per cent on the same month last year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
This equated to 34,300 loans, up 24 per cent month-on-month and 17 per cent year-on-year.
Home-owners borrowed £12.3bn for house purchase, up 29 per cent month-on-month and 12 per cent year-on-year.
They took out 68,200 loans, up 26 per cent on May and 8 per cent on June 2015.
Home-movers borrowed £6.9bn, up by a third on May and 5 per cent compared to a year ago.
This represented 33,900 loans, up 28 per cent month-on-month and 0.3 per cent on June 2015.
Remortgage activity totalled £5.6bn, up 8 per cent on May and 6 per cent compared to a year ago. This came to 32,400 loans, up 4 per cent month-on-month but down 2 per cent compared to a year ago.
Landlords borrowed £2.9bn, up 12 per cent month-on-month, but down 15 per cent year-on-year. This came to 18,300 loans in total, up 8 per cent compared to May and 17 per cent on June 2015.
Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said while the figures reveal growth in house purchase activity and in particular for first-time buyers, there is still uncertainty and it will take more time to understand how the market will evolve in the current environment.
“We still believe the mortgage market is well capitalised, resilient and open for business, and will remain so for the foreseeable future,” he stated.
“First-time buyers are continuing to drive house purchase lending, outperforming home movers for the third month running, with more loans advanced to them in June than at anytime since August 2007.
Number of loans for house purchase and remortgage in June
| House purchase | Remortgage | |||
| FTBs | Movers | Buy-to-let | Home owners | Buy-to-let |
June 2015 | 29,400 | 33,800 | 10,400 | 32,900 | 11,500 |
May 2016 | 27,600 | 26,400 | 4,500 | 31,100 | 12,100 |
June 2016 | 34,300 | 33,900 | 6,000 | 32,400 | 12,000 |
1 month change | +24.3% | +28.4% | +33.3% | +4.2% | -0.8% |
12 month change | +16.7% | +0.3% | -42.3% | -1.5% | +4.3% |
Gross buy-to-let lending, while lower than levels seen last year, was the highest monthly levels of activity by volume and by value since the stamp duty changes on second properties came in on 1 April.
Buy-to-let remortgage continued to drive the market, making up two-thirds of gross lending, although buy-to-let house purchase grew month-on-month substantially, whereas buy-to-let remortgage dipped slightly.
Mr Smee commented: “Buy-to-let house purchase activity remains lower than before the stamp duty changes at the beginning of April, but showed a large month-on-month increase. As might be expected, buy-to-let remortgage seems to have been less affected by the changes and remains consistent with lending last year.”
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, added: “Buy-to-let lending fell considerably in the second quarter, which was entirely as expected with landlords bringing forward buying decisions to the first quarter of the year.
“Although various tax changes will make the sector less attractive in future, what looks to be an ongoing low interest rate environment will support activity in the sector as investors aren’t exactly spoilt for choice as to what to do with their money.”
peter.walker@ft.com
