UK Finance has revealed that in June, first-time buyers borrowed £5.9bn, up 26% on the previous month and 9% on June 2016.
This equated to 36,000 loans, up 22% month-on-month and 6% year-on-year.
Home movers borrowed £7.8bn, up 26% on May and 15% year-on-year. This equated to 36,500 loans, up 24% month-on-month and 9% compared to a year ago.
Home-owner remortgage activity totalled £6bn, up 5% by value on May and 7% on a year ago. The number of remortgage loans totalled 34,300, up 5% month-on-month and 6% on a year ago.
Gross buy-to-let totalled £3.0bn, up 3% on May and up 3% compared to June 2016. These equated to 19,700 loans, up 3% month-on-month and 6% year-on-year.
UK Finance reported that in the second quarter, home buyers borrowed £34.4bn, up 18% on Q1 and 24% on Q2 2016. This equated to 183,300 loans, up 16% on Q1 and 9% on Q2 2016.
Within this, first-time buyers borrowed £14.8bn, up 18% on last quarter and 10% on Q2 2016. They took out 91,400 loans, up 15% quarter-on-quarter and 6% year-on-year.
Home movers borrowed £19.6bn, up 19% on Q1 and 21% year-on-year. This equated to 92,200 loans, up 17% quarter-on-quarter and 13% compared to a year ago.
Home-owner remortgage activity totalled £16.9bn, down 11% by value on Q1 but up 1% on a year ago. The number of remortgage loans totalled 96,900, down 12% quarter-on-quarter and 1% on a year ago.
Gross buy-to-let totalled £8.4bn, down 6% on Q1 but up 5% on Q2 2016. This equated to 55,400 loans, down 6% on the previous quarter but up 5% year-on-year.
Paul Smee, head of mortgages at UK Finance, said: “June’s figures show a busy month in the mortgage market, with home movers having their highest monthly activity levels for over a year and an especially high number of loans for first-time buyers. Buy-to-let activity remains subdued compared to its 2015 peak but consistent month-to-month since stamp duty changes in April 2016.
“But there are also signs of a softening market and we are not anticipating that this performance will be sustained in the second half of 2017. A slightly lop-sided market could well show some growth in house purchase lending but alongside reduced remortgage and buy-to-let activity.”
Richard Pike, Phoebus Software sales and marketing director, added: “It appears that the government plans to get more first-time-buyers onto the property ladder are starting to bear fruit. Activity in this area of the market reached its highest level since November 2006, with 36,000 purchases in the month. However, where there are winners there are also losers and the buy-to-let market continues to suffer from the same government intervention. Nonetheless, it is encouraging, given the recent political upheaval, to see people moving again.
“There is plenty of talk about the government’s plans to ‘fix’ the broken housing market and perhaps we are starting to see a shift. The one thing that does seem to be happening is a halt in excessive house price rises, which must be a good thing for long term affordability.”
