However the figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders in Scotland showed despite a third successive quarter of growth Scotland was still behind the rest of the UK at 16%.
Iain Malloch, chair of CML Scotland, said: "The boost in first-time buyers is encouraging but the rest of the market still remains broadly flat.”
Malloch added that the Funding for Lending scheme was likely to assist with growth going forward and the council welcomed the Mortgage Indemnity New Home scheme which enabled people to access higher loan to value mortgages on new build properties.
But he said: “It’s still too early to see any meaningful effects flowing into the market as yet.”
First-time buyers in Scotland borrowed £460 million up from £450 million in the previous quarter and £440 million in the third quarter of last year and the average LTV was 80%, a figure largely unchanged in the last 18 months.
The percentage of income spent on mortgage payments by first-time buyers in Scotland remained stable at 17.8% lower than in the UK overall at 20.1%.
And first-time buyers typically borrowed 2.83 times their income which is lower than the 3.25 income multiple in the UK reflecting the lower house prices in Scotland.
A total of 3,200 first-time buyers bought a property under £125,000 in the third quarter, falling below the stamp duty threshold and representing 63% of all loans to first-time buyers compared to 39% in the UK.
