The era of the amateur buy-to-let investor is all but dead, with banks advancing only a few dozen loans to them every day, lending figures show.

At the market’s peak in 2007, banks issued 16,000 buy-to-let loans every month for house purchases. In February, that figure had fallen by two thirds to 4,800, only 170 a day, according to UK Finance, the banking trade association.

A quarter of these were to amateur investors, with the majority of loans now being taken out by professionals with multiple properties trading through limited companies, mortgage brokers report. The figures show that buy-to-let lending has fallen by half over the past three years after a 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge was introduced on property purchases by existing homeowners.