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Huge rise in buy to let mortgage loans
Buy to let mortgages in December totalled 17,300 – a huge 18 per cent rise over the same month in 2013 according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
These loans totalled £2.5 billion in value – an even larger 32 per cent rise compared to December 2013.
There were 54,000 buy-to-let loans in the fourth quarter of last year, up four per cent on the previous quarter. The fourth quarter loans represented lending of £7.7 billion, up five per cent on the quarter before.
Within the overall total of buy-to-let loans in the fourth quarter, 26,700 were advanced for house purchase and 26,900 for remortgage.
Overall in 2014, gross buy-to-let loans totalled 197,700 and totalled in value at £27.4 billion, around a third larger than the previous year.
First-time buyers in 2014 were advanced a total of 311,500 loans, up 15 per cent on 2013. The value of these loans – £45 billion – increased 24 per cent on the previous year.
However, these comparative figures seem likely to reignite the debate about whether buy to let purchases are in some way ‘damaging’ the housing market and reducing affordability and availability to first time buyers in particular.
