In January 2019, there were 25,100 new first-time buyer mortgages completed, highlighting year-on-year (YOY) growth of 4.6% when compared to January 2018, figures published by UK Finance revealed.

In its latest Lending Trends report, the association found that completed homemover mortgages were also up 2.8%, taking the January’s figure to 25,300, suggesting that the residential mortgage market has had a strong start to the year, despite ongoing economic uncertainty.

However, the buy-to-let (BTL) market has continued to struggle, with 5,500 new BTL home purchase mortgages completed in the month, 1.8% fewer than in the same month a year earlier. UK Finance claimed that it is still seeing some “contraction” in the BTL sector, partly due to regulatory and tax changes.

Despite this, the decline recorded this year is less than in January 2018, when the association reported a 5.1% YOY decrease in the number of BTL home purchases.

Furthermore, though remortgaging levels were up towards the back-end of 2018, January saw the number of new homeowner remortgages completed decline by 2.7%, tumbling to 47,400. Remortgaging in the BTL sector experienced a similar drop-off in activity, with 15,800 new remortgages, a 4.2% drop from the year before.

UK Finance noted that, while this amounted to a YOY fall, January 2018 was a particularly strong month, with the highest number of residential mortgages in nine years, and the highest number of BTL remortgages on record.

Despite the fall in January, the body expects the remortgaging sector to see continued strength in 2019, as more tranches of fixed-rate deals come to an end.

Commenting, TMA director of mortgage services David Copland said: “It’s encouraging to see consumer confidence remains high, particularly within the mortgage market. Mortgage and home purchase approval rates continue to increase – testament to a market that refuses to stand still.

“In particular, we are seeing more first-time buyers take advantage of reduced competition from private landlords who have been burdened with tax hikes. This, coupled with the new Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, makes it a good time to be a first-time buyer - if you have a deposit!”

Masthaven managing director of long-term mortgage Matt Andrews echoed this point, claiming that the upwards trend in home purchases is a “sign that the mortgage market is remaining resilient” against the current economic and political backdrop.

“What would be interesting to see included in these stats are the number of mortgages approved by non-high street banks. More and more individuals are looking outside of the traditional realms of secured borrowing. In fact, our most recent Broker Beast research found that 61% of specialist lending intermediaries found the main reason for customers approaching them for advice was because they have specialist lending needs – often which cannot be met by the traditional high street banks,” he added.

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