Buy-to-let is beginning to boom

Published: 16/11/2011

Buy-to-let lending continues to move in the right direction with Q3 seeing a 19 per cent increase, according to the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

As tenant demand reaches its highest levels – rental properties are now being snapped up in record time (12.7 days) – both existing landlords and market newcomers are capitalising on it.

34,500 buy-to-let loans were advanced during July, August and September, an increase of 29,700 on Q2. Naturally, the values of buy-to-let loans also increased by £6bn and totalled £3.8bn for the quarter. The market has risen by £7bn in the last year.

Almost 12 per cent of all house purchases were for buy-to-let properties.

Yet despite all these positive steps forward, the market remains a fraction of its former self as CML Director General, Paul Smee, explains:

“Despite recent improvements, however, buy-to-let lending volumes are still only around one-third of their former peak.”¹

¹Mortgage Solutions (Nov 2011)

Content correct at time of publication