Buy to let transactions down as landlords hold on to property – LendInvest

According to data from LendInvest, buy-to-let transaction volumes fell in every one of the 105 ranked postcodes it monitors across England and Wales over the last three months.

It found that transaction volumes fell by as much as -6.77% on average, but noted that other industry data and its own experience had found a surge in remortgaging.

The lender noted that there were a number of factors coming into play for influencing the growth in remortgage cases.

“As property values begin to improve, landlords will be more inclined to want to remortgage to leverage the increased value of their asset, rather than try to sell in a slower market,” it said.

“We have also recently reached the expiry of the initial term on mortgages taken out just prior to the stamp duty changes for second properties. This will be encouraging investors to take the time to explore their options.

“As buy-to-let investors also eye the prospect of rate rises in the not so distant future, we can certainly expect more borrowers take these proactive measures to minimise interest costs where possible,” it added.

Buy, hold, remortgage

LendInvest sales director Ian Boden said: “Data from the BTL Index, UK Finance and our own experience as a mortgage lender strongly suggests that right now a ‘buy, hold and remortgage’ strategy is some investors’ preference while the market works through a possible slowdown.”

“Each of the very top performing BTL locations this quarter is experiencing a slowdown in transactions – substantial falls in places, dips in others.

“But, the best places this quarter continue to outperform the competition well thanks to strong performances on other, equally important metrics like rental yield, capital gains and rental price growth,” he added.