Buy-to-let mortgage lending sees stable first quarter
Mortgage lending for buy-to-let properties saw continued stability in the first quarter of 2011, particularly in comparison to the wider mortgage market, new figures show.
Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reveals that new buy-to-let mortgage lending in the first three months of 2011 totalled £2.9 billion across 27,600 loans, a fall of 3.5 per cent on the last quarter of 2010.
This compares to a decline of 11 per cent in new lending across the mortgage market as a whole.
Furthermore, the figure is significantly up on the £2.1 billion lent across 22,000 loans in the first quarter of 2010.
CML director general Michael Coogan said: "Buy-to-let continues to progress positively in the context of a stable, but still low-volume, overall market.
"Demand for rental property remains strong, and as more funding becomes available we would expect to see buy-to-let lending increasing."
Furthermore, lending for buy-to-let properties is beginning to narrow the gap on the owner-occupier sector in terms of the number of loans falling into arrears, said the CML.
At the end of March, the three-month buy-to-let arrears rate stood at 2.24 per cent when receiver of rent cases were included, compared with a three-month arrears rate of 2.15 per cent in the owner-occupier sector.
"The performance of buy-to-let loans is also holding up well, and the differential between arrears rates in the buy-to-let sector and the owner-occupier sector has narrowed substantially so that there is now only a modest difference between them," said Mr Coogan.
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