Home-owners took out 69,800 loans, the highest amount in a monthly period since June 2014 and the most amount borrowed for house purchase since August 2007.
This was mainly driven by home mover activity, with borrowing up 82% annually to reach £9.3bn.
In contrast, first-time buyers, while showing growth, were only at levels by volume and by value seen in December 2015. FTBs borrowed £4.5bn, up 32% on February and 29% on March last year.
More positively, the amount first-time buyers are spending of their monthly gross income to service capital and interest repayments was 18.0%, the lowest level since the CML began tracking this metric in 2005. Home movers are also paying at record low proportions of income at 17.8%, down from 18.1% in February and March last year, and much lower than the peak of 23.8% in December 2007.
Remortgage lending to home-owners saw a decline compared to the previous month but a slight upturn compared to March last year. On a quarterly basis, however, this was the most amount of remortgage loans taken out in a quarter since Q4 2011 and the most amount borrowed for remortgage in a quarter since the first quarter of 2009.
Landlords borrowed £7.1bn ahead of April's stamp duty rise - up 87% month-on-month and 163% year-on-year. This came to 45,000 loans in total, up 88% compared to February and up 142% compared to March 2015.
Paul Smee, director general of the CML, commented:
"Activity was distorted in March due to a rush to beat the introduction of changes to stamp duty on second properties in April, alongside the seasonal uptick in activity before Easter. While the increases are substantial, these supercharged levels of activity are likely to be temporary and will fall back over the summer months."
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, added:
"March was a busy month for the mortgage market as investors rushed to complete before the stamp duty hike in April. The triple-digit year-on-year growth in buy-to-let reflects a surge in activity in the sector which will not be repeated in April’s figures. Many landlords brought forward decisions to buy, with the market now likely to pause for breath as investors consider their next move, possibly later in the year.
"That said, we don’t expect to see a significant slowdown in activity on the residential side. There are still excellent mortgage rates available, both fixed and variable. Interest rates are unlikely to rise anytime soon which will continue to attract first-time buyers and second steppers to the market. The March CML figures showed a healthy increase in lending to first-time buyers compared with February and a year ago, especially as they would not have been motivated by stamp duty changes.
"There are potential hiccups on the horizon which may foster some uncertainty, such as the EU referendum, but for many people life will go on and it will be business as usual. The challenger banks are keen to lend, while more established lenders also wish to bring in more business, which will be reflected in cheap rates and some tweaking of criteria."
