That’s according to UK Finance, in its latest buy-to-let market update, which said that lending was up 26% by number and 27.7% by value compared with the same quarter in 2023.
Rental yields have also ticked up. The average gross buy-to-let rental yield for the UK in Q2 2024 was 6.9%, compared with 6.51% in the same quarter in the previous year.
Russell Anderson, Paragon Bank mortgages commercial director, said: “UK Finance’s buy-to-let update is positive and acts as evidence of the market continuing to normalise following the challenging economic and political conditions experienced last year.
“The figures reveal strong growth in total gross lending, in both the value and number of loans written, since the previous quarter and when compared to the same period in 2023.
“Drilling down into the data, we see that maturities continue to be a key driver of business, with remortgaging during the quarter valuing £6.2 billion, the highest since the end of 2022. Encouragingly, we also see that landlords are actively growing their portfolios, with the value of purchases increasing consecutively during the last three quarters to £2.4 billion.
Your Mortgage Awards 2024/25: winners revealed
Sponsored by Your Mortgage Awards
“If we compare this number with the £2.7 billion of buy-to-let mortgages written for purchases in second quarter of 2019, we see that today’s market has almost recovered to pre-pandemic levels.”
Mixed picture for mortgage rates and arrears
Buy-to-let rates are marginally higher than a year ago, said UK Finance, but notably down compared to the first quarter of this year. It found that the average interest rate across all new buy-to-let loans in the UK was 5.19% in Q2 2024 – 21 basis points lower than in the previous quarter.
Arrears were up sharply, said the banking association. At the end of Q2 2024, there were 13,570 buy-to-let mortgages in arrears greater than 2.5% of the outstanding balance. This was up 51% year-on-year.
There were also 710 buy-to-let mortgage possessions taken in Q2 2024, up 33.8% on the same quarter a year previously.
