There were 28,600 first-time buyer mortgages in June – 7% more than in May and 19% more than in June 2013.

It means that in total, almost half of residential mortgage lending – excluding remortgages and buy-to-let – was to first-time buyers.

The data, from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, appears to be in sharp contrast to a claim by the National Association of Estate Agents that only 3% of home sales in June were to buyers under the age of 30 – an all-time low. The NAEA story made front page headlines, notably in the Daily Mail.

Although the CML data does not give their ages, it does show the number of first-time buyers rising quite dramatically.

By value, loans to first-timers also went up, totalling £4.2bn – 11% up on May and 27% higher than June 2013.

In the second quarter of this year as a whole, there were 79,900 first-time buyer loans – 17% up on the first quarter and 24% up on the second quarter of last year.

In June, the typical first-time buyer loan size was £123,865 and the typical gross income of a first-time buyer household was £37,000.

Lending to home movers also grew, but at a slower pace. In June, the number of loans to movers was 31,900, 4% up on the previous month and 11% on June last year.

Buy-to-let lending was unaltered between May and June at 15,600 mortgages. However, compared with buy-to-let lending in June last year, it was up 38% by value and 23% by number.