Octane Capital lent £117m during the second quarter of 2021.

This is the first time it has completed on over £100m of deals in an individual quarter.

In total, Octane received 325 applications between April and June, and completed on 166 loans during the second quarter.

The second quarter also saw a 15% rise in the number of foreign nationals investing in UK property relative to the first three months of the year — the sharpest quarterly increase since launch.

Of those foreign nationals investing in UK property, more and more are buying outside the capital: in 2017, just 8% of Octane’s foreign national borrowers acquired units outside London. In 2021 to date, 36% of foreign nationals have bought property in the UK regions.

Mark Posniak (pictured), managing director at Octane Capital, said: “Not only did we pass £1 billion of completions in June, the second three months of the year proved to be our biggest quarter since we launched in 2017. Activity levels were simply off the scale.

“The Stamp Duty holiday was clearly one driver but we’re also seeing a lot of demand from foreign nationals, mostly outside the EU, who are increasingly viewing the UK property market as a safe haven. With Freedom Day behind us, we’re expecting the second half of the year to be as frantic as the first.”