The share of gross mortgage lending for buy-to-let purposes (covering house purchase, remortgage and further advance) was 14%, unchanged from the same period in 2019.
Whilst the value of outstanding balances with some arrears increased by 1.8% over the quarter to £13.7 billion, and now accounts for 0.91% of outstanding mortgage balances.
New commitments for lending over the coming months was down by 4.3 per cent from £70.6bn to £67.6bn between Q4 and Q1, but up 6.1 per cent year on year.
The share of mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 90 per cent increased by 0.7 percentage from the same time last year to 5.2 per cent.
SPF Private Clients Chief Executive Mark Harris said ‘The Bank of England data relates to the first quarter of the year when the impact of covid-19 had not yet been fully felt.”
“While this makes it feel very historic, it does show what might have been had the pandemic not hit, with an increase in gross mortgage advances compared with the previous year, as well as the value of new mortgage commitments.”
“With lenders including Accord, Clydesdale and Virgin Money pulling out of the 90 per cent LTV market this week owing to high demand, after only recently returning when physical valuations were once again allowed, there is clearly a need for the big lenders to commit to this market.”