Net loan growth of around £1bn for the first nine months of the year was backed by net loans totalling £5.8bn at the end of September.
Loans to SMEs were up by 19 per cent to £2.7bn, matched by year-to-date growth in deposits of 20 per cent, to £5.4bn.
Chief executive Phillip Monks explained that the bank refreshed its buy-to-let customer offering in July and across both SME commercial and residential mortgages, buy-to-let origination during the third quarter was around 19 per cent higher than for the same period last year.
“As expected, we have not seen any impact from the recently announced changes to tax relief for some individual buy-to-let landlords,” he added.
Earlier this year, he used a results statement to complain about the potential impact of plans to restrict relief on mortgage interest for individual buy-to-let landlords to the basic rate of income tax, to be applied from April 2017 and phased in over four years.
At the time, Mr Monks stated that a demographic shift means many households are expected to be renting within the private sector, which should generate further growth in the buy-to-let sector.
peter.walker@ft.com
