Number of first-time buyers soars to six year high with £3.8bn of mortgages handed out in August alone

Easy money: Lending to first-time buyers soared in August - even before the Government's Help to Buy scheme was launched

And the increase in those first-time buyers getting hold of credit came before the Government launched its controversial Help to Buy scheme where taxpayers would back mortgages for people with only five per cent deposits.

The growing amount of credit flooding into the housing market has stoked fears of an impending housing bubble.

The CML figures showed that first-time buyers stretched their borrowing in relation to their income in August, borrowing 3.36 times their salary typically, which was a jump from 3.31 in July. The latest figure marks the highest borrowing ratio seen for first-time buyers since 2007.

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