Paragon has reported a 16% increase in first half mortgage lending to £834m, up from £721m in the same period last year.
Buy-to-let business dominated new mortgage lending, up by 17% to £788m, benefitting from Paragon’s focus on professional landlords with larger portfolios who are becoming increasingly important to the supply of private rented property in the UK.
The proportion of ‘complex’ buy-to-let completions - comprising customers operating through corporate structures or running large portfolios - increased from 72% to 88% of the total during the first half and represented 92% of the pipeline of future business at the end of March.
Alongside mortgage lending, Paragon delivered an 89% year-on-year increase in its Commercial Lending portfolio to £1.3bn demonstrating good progress in its strategic transformation to a more broadly-based banking group focused on supporting British SMEs and consumers in specialist lending markets.
John Heron, MD of Mortgages at Paragon said: “Complexity around the private rented sector resulting from fiscal changes and increased regulation has resulted in a shift in balance with professional landlords providing a greater proportion of the supply of rented homes.”