The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) found that the volume of lending for house purchases increased in May to 52,700 from 51,000 in April (+3.3%). There was also an increase in the value of loans to £7.9bn from £7.7bn in April (+2.6%).

The results found that lending to first-time buyers also increased by +3.8% to 19,200 in May. In addition, loans to home movers increased in May by +3.7% to 33,500. After a sharp increase in the number of remortgages in April to 83,000, there was an even greater fall in May to 71,000 (-14%).

The picture is much bleaker on an annual basis with all areas suffering substantial falls from May 2007: volume and value of loans for house purchases (-44%), first time buyer loans (-41%), home mover loans (-46%) and remortgage loans (-23%).

The CML figures also recorded the type of loan purchased. Although fixed-rates have become more expensive over recent months the percentage of these loans taken out has increased to 66% of all new loans in May from 59% in April.

Jeremy Law, head of buy-to-let at Mortgage Express, told PIN: “It is important to remember that these figures are for completions and that the transactions will have been agreed several months earlier which might explain the slight increase. We have found that there is still demand for buy-to-let mortgages and that the experienced landlord is still confident. They see the current housing market as a good opportunity to buy. Landlords are taking out more fixed rate mortgages than we expected as certainty regarding payments becomes more important than the extra cost.