Buy-to-let lending in the first quarter of 2011 totalled £2.9 billion, around 3.5% lower than the £3 billion of lending across 28,600 loans in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The total outstanding number of buy-to-let loans increased from 1,305,000 at the end of 2010 to 1,313,200 at the end of the March 2011, with a rise in the outstanding value of buy-to-let lending from £151.5 billion to £152 billion.

Buy-to-let lending accounts for 12.3% of total outstanding mortgage lending by value, and 11.6% of mortgages by number.

The average maximum loan-to-value ratio remained at 75%, with the average minimum rental cover requirement at 125%.

Arrears for buy-to-let lending are “increasingly similar”” to the owner-occupied sector