The value of new mortgage commitments made by lenders in the first quarter of this year came to £82.5bn, the Bank of England (BoE) reports.

This is 6.7% more than in Q4 2021 and 6.6% greater than the value committed in Q1 2021.

Meanwhile, the value of gross mortgage advantages made in Q1 2022 was £76.9bn, the BoE continues, which is 8.7% more than the previous quarter but 7.5% lower than a year ago.

And the outstanding value of all residential mortgages in Q1 2022 was £1.63tn, a 4.4% rise on the year.

The report also highlights that the share of mortgages advanced in the first quarter of 2022 with an LTV ratio greater than 90% was 3.9%, which is 2.8 percentage points higher than a year ago, in Q1 2021, but 0.2 percentage points less than seen in Q4 2021.

Mortgage loans advanced with ratios greater than 95% were broadly unchanged on the quarter, the BoE adds.

The BoE says that 86.6% of advances in the first quarter of this year were made for owner occupiers, with 50.7% of these for purchase. Of these, 21.4% were made for first-time buyers (FTBs), a 0.5 percentage point fall on last year and a 1.9 percentage point decrease since Q4 2021.

And gross mortgage advances made for the buy-to-let (BTL) sector grew 1.7 percentage points annually in Q1 2022, making up a 13.4% share in total.

Quilter mortgage expert Karen Noye says: “The BoE’s latest mortgage lenders and administrators statistics show the property market continued to move at a rapid pace in Q1 of this year, though this is unlikely to last.

“The data show that the value of gross mortgage advances reached £76.9bn – up £6.7bn on the previous quarter. However, as the data from the previous quarter included the cooling off period following the final withdrawal of the stamp duty holiday, this growth is not unexpected. Mortgage lending in Q1 2022 was 7.5% lower compared to the same period a year earlier, which suggests the rush to buy is finally slowing.

“The value of new mortgage commitments also grew considerably in Q1 2022… given this data is from Q1 alone, this is likely as a result of people pushing to buy while the BoE interest rates were still relatively low and cheap mortgage deals were still on the shelves.

“As circumstances have changed significantly since Q1, the bank rate has crept higher and cheap mortgage deals have largely become a thing of the past, we can expect to see a considerable cooling off in terms of lending in the following months.

“This will likely be seen across the board, but FTBs in particular, who were already struggling to take their first step on the property ladder, will find it harder still as their spending power will reduce as their deposits are eroded by inflation.

“Throughout the rest of the year, we are likely to see mortgage lending drop as more people are priced out of the market by the rising cost of living and BoE interest rate hikes, as well as being put off by the continuing economic uncertainty.”