Paragon Mortgages’ Financial Adviser Confidence Tracking (FACT) Index has revealed that, on average, the intermediaries interviewed conducted 5.4% more buy-to-let business in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2011.

Availability of buy-to-let finance also improved significantly during the past three months. Of the intermediaries surveyed, 64% thought that availability improved and just 8% felt that it deteriorated.

Paragon’s FACT Index also showed that 72% of all cases introduced by financial advisers in the second quarter were for residential mortgages, and 20% were for buy-to-let mortgages.

47% of buy-to-let mortgages processed by intermediaries in the second quarter were for landlords looking to extend their current portfolios. This has increased from 43% in the first quarter. Mortgages for first-time landlords totalled 21% in Q2, which was up from 18% in Q1. The proportion of remortgages fell during the second quarter to 28% (35% in Q1).

John Heron , Paragon Mortgages’ managing director, said: “Government statistics just released indicate that more than 17% of English property is now in the private rented sector. All of the market indicators