New data released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) on the profile of mortgage lending in the UK during April 2014, including buy-to-let, first-time buyer, home mover, and remortgages shows:
• Buy-to-let loans compared to April 2013 showed a 43% increase in the number of loans being completed and this showed that the overall buy-to-let lending value increased by 57% in April 2014.
• First-time buyers rose by only 1% in April compared to March, but this was nearly 40% up on April 2013.
• Home movers increased in April and again compared to April 2013, overall growth was up by over 30% in volume and 47% in value.
Another report from The Bank of England earlier this month showed that gross UK mortgage lending had increased to £16.5 billion in April, which was 35% higher than the £12.2 billion total for April last year.
Lending for buy-to-let in April 2014 for over 16,000 completed mortgage loans amounted to £2.2bn. This figure was almost identical to March 2014, but significantly this was up by over 40% by volume and up by nearly 60% by value compared to April last year.
The breakdown of buy-to-let loans shows as follows, 8,400 of these were for new house purchase, with remortgages accounting for over 7,500 loans. These figures showed that the number of buy-to-let new loans were nearly 50% up on April 2013. When it comes to loan value new loans totalled over a £1bn in value, and more significantly this increase was over 60% up on April last year.
Remortgage loan numbers for buy-to-let were up nearly 40% on April last year. However the total value of these loans at £1.2bn was 60% up compared to April last year.
Paul Smee, director general of the CML, commented:
“First-time buyers and home movers continue to be key drivers in the growth of the market and, despite fears that the momentum could be hindered, we have seen a continued year-on-year upward trend every month in 2014. The UK picture continues to mask a disparate set of varied local conditions, but overall we expect lending levels to continue to build on the foundation of growth we have seen over the past 12 months.”
