First-time buyer lending rose by 9.1% in November

First-time buyer lending reached £6bn in November 2018 after rising by 9.1% year-on-year, UK Finance’s Mortgage Trends Update has found.

At the other end of the spectrum there was £800m of buy-to-let purchase mortgages, 11.1% fewer than the same month the year before. There was £2.4bn of new buy-to-let remortgages, 9.1% more year-on-year.

Jackie Bennett, director of mortgages at UK Finance said: "A mixture of competitive deals and schemes including Help to Buy saw even more first-time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder during November.

"Meanwhile, homeowner remortgaging activity has steadied, after reaching its highest level in a decade the previous month as a large number of fixed-rate deals came to an end.

"In the buy-to-let market new home purchases remain subdued, while remortgaging continues to grow as landlords lock into attractive rates."

There was £7.8bn of new homemover mortgages, 4% more year-on-year and £6.8bn of homemover remortgages, the same year-on-year.

Richard Pike, Phoebus Software sales and marketing director, said: “The figures from UK Finance this morning show that people were taking the opportunity at the end of last year to get in before the effects of Brexit negotiations could really be felt.

“There were plenty of good deals for everyone either looking to move, buy or remortgage, and the numbers indicate that many took advantage.

“Now, of course, we come to the crux of negotiations, and into completely unknown territory. Today’s report from RICS paints a very gloomy picture and I have no doubt that most people will be erring on the side of caution in the coming months.

“The one thing to bear in mind is that ours is not the only industry that will be affected by Brexit. It was always going to be a sticky time, the question now is will our government actually manage to come to an arrangement that, as Theresa May says, can ‘get the job done’?”