Annual home-owner house purchase lending in Scotland in 2015 totalled 64,800 loans, up 9% on 2014, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said. This came to £8.5bn, up 14% on 2014.
First-time buyers took out 30,000 loans, worth £3.3bn, up 8% by volume and 12% by value, on the previous year.
Home movers took out 34,800 loans, worth £5.2bn, up 9% by volume and 15% by value, compared to 2014. Remortgage lending came to £3.1bn, up 18% on 2014. This totalled 26,200 loans, up 12% on the previous year.
Meanwhile, during the fourth quarter of 2015, home-owner house purchase lending totalled 17,200 loans, down 4% in the third quarter but up 14% in the fourth quarter 2014.
First-time buyers took out 8,000 loans – 2% down on the previous quarter but up 14% on the last quarter of 2014. First-time buyers in the period borrowed £870 million – down 2% on the previous quarter but up 14% on the fourth quarter 2014.
Home mover lending totalled £1.4bn, down 4% on the previous quarter but up 18% on the fourth quarter 2014. The number of loans in the period was 9,200, down 5% quarter-on-quarter but up 14% on year-on-year. Remortgage lending went up by volume quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
Linda Docherty, CML chair for Scotland, said: “The sustained year-on-year growth in house purchase lending seen since 2012 continued in Scotland this quarter. This meant more first-time buyers and home movers in 2015 took out a loan to purchase a home than in any year since 2008. With an economic climate of low interest rates and competitive mortgage deals, we would expect this growth in the Scottish market to continue into 2016.”