Buy-to-let lending falls
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said 4,200 loans were handed out in April to those purchasing buy-to-let properties - marking a 85.4% fall compared with the 28,700 loans advanced for this purpose in March.
These loans were collectively worth £600 million in April - shrinking back by 86% compared with the £4.3 billion-worth of loans handed out in March for buy-to-let house purchase.
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Hide AdBuy-to-let lending for house purchase was also running at around half the levels seen in April 2015.
On April 1, a three percentage point stamp duty increase was introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for people buying second homes, including buy-to-let investors. Stamp duty has been abolished in Scotland but a similar tax hike took place there to mirror the changes in the rest of the UK.