By value, there was £4.2 billion of lending to first-time buyers in June - 11% up on May and 27% higher than June last year.
In the second quarter as a whole, there were 79,900 first-time buyer loans - 17% up on the previous quarter, and 24% up on Q2 2013. In the second quarter as a whole, first-time buyers borrowed £11.5 billion - up 12% on the previous quarter and 34% on Q2 2013.
First-time buyer affordability changed fractionally, with first-time buyers typically borrowing 3.47 times their gross income, compared to 3.46 in May. The typical loan size for first-time buyers was £123,865 in June, up from £121,500 in May. The typical gross income of a first-time buyer household was £37,000 in June compared to £36,500 in May.
While new regulatory rules came into effect in the second quarter of 2014, first-time buyer characteristics changed only marginally within this period. First-time buyers borrowed on average £122,000, up from 118,750 in the first quarter of the year. They typically borrowed 3.46 times their income, up slightly from 3.43 in the first quarter of 2014. The average household income of first-time buyers increased to £36,700 in the period, up from £35,700 in the first quarter of 2013.
The relatively low level of interest rates saw first-time buyers' payment burden remaining relatively low in June at 19.3% of gross income being spent to cover capital and interest payments, down slightly from 19.5% in May.
Paul Smee, director general of the CML, commented:
“For the second month running since new FCA rules took effect, lending characteristics remain similar to the market beforehand. We now feel confident that, as we would hope, the MMR effect is more gentle dampener than hard brake. As we recently suggested in our revised forecasts, lending levels should continue to increase modestly over the course of the year, driven mostly by house purchase but with remortgaging also recovering.”
