The BTL beacon as residential is hit hard

Published: 05/03/2012

As residential lending is hit with increases in regulation and criteria tighter than last night’s Dancing on Ice lycra, the (as yet) unaffected buy-to-let market could just prove to be this year’s bread and butter.

Accord Mortgages is one of the latest lenders to withdraw all of its residential mortgages products, albeit temporarily, after receiving a sudden influx of applications recently.

Of the deals that are available there is 75 per cent loan to value (LTV) cap. However there is no such restriction on the buy-to-let equivalent where 80-85 per cent LTV mortgages remain readily available; six known lenders currently offer 80 per cent buy-to-let mortgages.

According to Moneyfacts the number of buy-to-let deals available has doubled in the last two years with 486 BTL mortgages available in February 2012 (compared to 386 in 2011 and 243 in 2010). Buy-to-let instructions now account for 23.3 per cent of brokers’ business compared with 19.3 per cent 12 months prior and over half of brokers (53 per cent) expect business to increase further throughout the year.

Content correct at time of publication