Paragon has reported writing £694.6 million of specialist buy-to-let business during the six months to 31 March 2020, an increase of 1.5% on the previous year.

Pre-tax profits for the period stood at £57.1 million.

Other mortgage business reduced to £98.2 million, down from £140.8 million, as Paragon continued its strategy of reducing amateur buy-to-let business.

Paragon’s mortgage pipeline at the end of the period stood at £789.8 million, 93% of which is classed as specialist, professional buy-to-let activity.

Meanwhile, lending across Paragon’s commercial lending division stood at £481.3 million, including £200.7 million to UK SMEs through asset-based finance and £197.8 through the company’s development finance arm to small-to-medium sized residential property developers.

Richard Rowntree (pictured), Paragon’s managing director of mortgages, said: “We continued our focus on specialist buy-to-let business during the period, which is reflected in today’s results. We believe that larger-scale, professional landlords will fuel the future growth of the private rented sector and we are well-positioned to serve that market.

“We have remained active during the lockdown period, supporting our customers and quickly adapting to the challenging conditions. We have recommenced physical property valuations and received an upsurge in visits to our intermediary portal in the period after the housing market reopened in May, suggesting pent-up demands from landlords.”

Arrears on Paragon’s buy-to-let book remained stable in the six months at 0.16%, which remain below the national buy-to-let market at 0.41%.