The Paragon Group has reported pre-tax profits of £122.2 million, which represents an 18.1% increase on the figure for 2013.

Paragon Mortgages’ buy-to-let completions for the year rose by 82.5% to £656.6 million.

Meanwhile, its pipeline of new business at the end of September totalled £414.8 million, compared to £231.9 million for the previous year.

Arrears levels improved across the year to 0.25%, below the CML’s market average of 0.69% in Q3 2014.

During the last 12 months the Group also completed a total securitisation issuance of £929.7 million, after closing its fourth deal of the year in November.

John Heron (pictured, managing director of Paragon Mortgages, said: “Over the last 12 months we have seen strong growth in our buy-to-let business, with completions increasing by more than 80%. This has been made possible by the improved scale and cost of our funding which has allowed us to deliver more attractive products for the benefit of our landlord customers and the intermediary market.

“Paragon Mortgages continues to be a significant part of the Group and contributed £80.5 million to pre-tax profits – a 14.5% increase on the previous year. Looking ahead, we expect strong and increasing tenant demand to continue to drive high levels of growth for buy-to-let mortgages and Paragon will be at the centre of the development of innovative solutions and competitive pricing in this market.”