Santander poised to get into BTL game

Published: 12/12/2011

There has been much speculation about Santander’s entrance into the buy-to-let market. But speculation now turns to actuality as the high street bank confirms its arrival is imminent.

A spokesperson for Abbey for Intermediaries said:

“We are please to confirm we will be entering the non-professional sector of the buy-to-let market shortly. We expect this to be in the next few weeks.”¹

The BTL market continues to grow from strength to strength; Q3 saw 34,500 buy-to-let loans worth £3.8bn advanced. This was up 16 per cent by number and 19 per cent by value quarter-on-quarter and put the market at its highest level since Q4 of 2008. There are now expectations that BTL lending will reach in excess of £20bn by 2015.

The Spanish banking giant is expected to bring 75 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) products to the table for landlords with one to three properties. They will also cap arrangement fees at £1000 instead of charging a percentage fee.

The venture was rumoured to have had an initial launch date in April. However it is believed technical glitches were the cause for the delay. These issues have reportedly been ironed out and admin staff in Glasgow trained.

¹Mortgage Introducer (Dec 2011)

Content correct at time of publication