The data, which was collated from 12 brokers also indicated that 22% of bridging loans were used to prevent a chain break, the most popular usage from the past year and a rise from 20% in 2022 — meanwhile investment purchase dropped to the second most popular use to 20%, from 23% in 2022, the top usage for that year.

Average completions were one day quicker than in 2022 at 58 days, while average monthly interest rate rose from 0.73% in 2022 to 0.87% in 2023.

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First charge took up 89.1%  of the market share, according to the data, while second charge made up 10.9%.

Regulated bridging made up 46.3% of business while unregulated took 53.7%.

Gareth Lewis, managing director at MT Finance, commented: “One of the standout stats was that a total of £831m of bridging loans were transacted by contributors over the last 12 months.

“A record annual high since Bridging Trends began in 2015, I’d argue that this is a direct result of borrowers utilising bridging finance’s speed, flexibility and certainty."