Buy To Let Hits Record Levels

With a strong couple of years for the property market despite the challenges of the pandemic, buy to let lending hit record levels.

This has been propelled by high levels of tenant demand, competitive mortgage rates and the stamp duty holiday.

Even with stricter conditions on mortgage lending, the demand hasn’t been dampened. Although it is worth noting that application times have increased. I’ve seen a steady increase in the time to complete an application with many providers demanding much more information than the previous norm.

It’s been reported that buy to let mortgage completions almost doubled from 2020 to 2021 while remortgages remained at a similar level.

So, investors still have an appetite to enter the property market and expand portfolios.

With the cost of living increasing, rental demand is likely to increase as it will reduce people’s ability to save deposits and meet ever stringent lending requirements. Those investors most able to adapt tend to be in the older age groups.

This is already reflected in the latest figures with landlords between 60 to 64 purchasing 52% more buy to lets than the year before.

It will interesting to see if this trend continues.

It’s been a very interesting 2 years (not quite the right word). How’s it affected you and your property plans?

If you’re looking to purchase your first buy to let or expand an existing portfolio, get in touch. We’re landlords as well so can give you first-hand advice as well as the different lending options.