The UK mortgage market picked up in April and the cooling buy to let sector appears to be seeing a halt in its decline, the latest industry figures show.

There were 27,370 new first time buyer mortgages completed in April 2019, up 7.95% year on year, according to the data from UK Finance, which also shows that there were 25,450 home mover mortgages completed in April, up 6.4% compared with the same month a year earlier.

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There were 5,100 new buy to let house purchase mortgages completed in April 2019, the same as this time last year while there were 14,400 remortgages in the buy to let sector, the same as a year ago.

According to Richard Pike, sales and marketing director of Phoebus Software, the figures are good news for the buy to let market. Pike reportedly said: “Given the regulatory and tax changes that landlords have had to withstand, this is somewhat surprising. Although there are many investors holding fire in the commercial world, the same cannot be said for consumer confidence. And, as we head into the summer months, when historically we expect to see uplift in the housing market, I can see the current trend continuing.”