The Paragon Group of Companies has reported that its new buy to let lending totalled £556.2m for the six months to the end of March this year – a strong performance despite a sharp drop on the £823.6m for the first six months of 2016.

Last year’s figure was heavily influenced by the rush to buy investment property ahead of the April 2016 stamp duty surcharge deadline.

Paragon has also announed that its buy to let lending pipeline is up a huge 111.7 per cent to £742.3m.

“I am delighted to report another strong performance for the period to March 2017, with Paragon … With the buy to let pipeline having more than doubled this year, and all other areas of the group experiencing buoyant growth, we approach the period ahead with confidence and optimism in being able to meet our expectations” chief executive Nigel Terrington told investors in a statement.