Paragon's buy-to-let loan book grows for first time since 2008

Figures yesterday from Paragon show there is still an active market in buy-to-let properties.

In the half year to March, Paragon made £87m of new buy-to-let loans, the first period of growth in its loan book since 2008. It completed its first securitisation of buy-to-let loans since 2007. Securitisation is a method of pooling mortgage loans and selling the result as a bond to investors.

Paragon saw profits up 13.4 per cent to £45m in the period, allowing it to increase the interim dividend by 11 per cent to 1.5p. The consumer finance arm – car loans, for example – saw earnings nearly double from £7.8m to £14.5m.