The Paragon Group of Companies has reported total lending and investment for the nine months to 30 June 2017 of £1.4 billion, with buy-to-let mortgage lending comprising £1.0 billion of the total.

Buy-to-let lending between March and June 2017 totalled £458 million, compared with £166 million in the third quarter of 2016 which followed the increase in stamp duty for buy-to-let purchases.

The proportion of ‘complex and professional landlord’ customers in the pipeline rose to 70% during the quarter, up from 62% at the start of the year. At the end of the quarter, the pipeline of new buy-to-let business totalled £700 million.

During the quarter, 96% of lending took place through Paragon Bank, which the group says reflects its increasingly central position in funding the group’s new lending flows.

New asset finance and other specialist lending rose by 66% to £330 million in the nine months to 30 June 2017.

John Heron, managing director of Paragon Mortgages, said: “The buy-to-let market has been the subject of repeated fiscal and regulatory intervention in recent times. This is changing the nature of buy-to-let and what we are seeing emerge is a more specialist market with a marked increase in more complex, professional landlord business.

“This is very well aligned with Paragon’s experience and capability as underlined by today’s strong trading figures and by our early implementation of phase two of the PRA’s regulatory requirements for buy-to-let.”