£5.9bn borrowed by UK first-time buyers in June
FIRST-time buyers borrowed a total of £5.9bn in June — marking a 26% surge on May amid a busy month for the mortgage market — according to banks and building societies.
Trade association UK Finance, which released the figures, said first-time buyer borrowing was also up by 9% compared with June 2016.
Despite the upswing in activity in June, UK Finance said it did not believe overall performance levels would be sustained in the second half of 2017 amid signs that the market is now softening.
People taking their first step on the property ladder took out bigger loans in June compared with the previous month, at £139,000 on average in June compared with £137,000 typically in May, its figures showed.
UK Finance’s figures also showed that home-movers borrowed £7.8bn in June.
That was also by up 26% on May, as well as an increase of 15% year on year.
Meanwhile, buy-to-let lending totalled £3bn, up 3% on May and a 3% increase compared with a year earlier.
And homeowners took out £6bn-worth of re-mortgage loans, up 5% by value on May and 7% compared with June 2016.
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 firsttime buyers.
“Buy-to-let activity remains subdued compared to its 2015 peak but consistent month-tomonth since stamp duty changes in April 2016.”