The number of properties being bought with buy-to-let mortgages increased by around 84,000 in 2011, modestly helping to increase the supply of private rented housing in the UK, according to latest data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

During the fourth quarter of 2011, a total of 34,800 buy-to-let mortgages (of which 15,600 were remortgages) were advanced, with a total value of £4 billion. This was virtually identical to the volume of business in the third quarter (34,300 loans worth £4 billion) but up on the fourth quarter of 2010 (26,300 loans worth £2.9 billion).

Compared with the height of the market in the third quarter of 2007, when quarterly lending totalled over 93,000 loans worth £12.7 billion, the buy-to-let market continues to operate at relatively subdued levels, but it is clearly continuing to recover from its low point in 2009, the CML said.

Buy-to-let mortgages account for nearly 13% of the total outstanding value of mortgages in the UK, and buy-to-let lending represented nearly 11% of total gross mortgage lending in the fourth quarter of 2011.

CML director general Paul Smee said: “Buy-to-let lending continues to perform well. Demand for rented property remains high