The Council of Mortgage Lenders has cut its forecast for lending to landlords for this year and next

Buy-to-let lending is slowing more quickly than expected after a regulatory and tax crackdown on the sector that has given first-time buyers a new lease of life.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has cut its forecast for landlord loans to £35 billion this year, from £38 billion, after seeing a collapse in activity. Over the past year, buy-to-let purchases have averaged about 6,000 a month, nearly half last year’s level.

With buy-to-let on the wane, “first-time buyers have recovered slowly”, the council said in its update for May.

“Buy-to-let had a weak start to 2017, and the sector’s contribution to overall net mortgage lending has fallen considerably over the last year,” Paul Smee, director-general of the council, said.

Landlords have been hit by an array