The February BTL market has seen lots of activity – Armstrong

It’s been interesting to read the wealth of data published recently following the year end, and there are a few trends brokers should really have on their radar.

Recent research from Connells shows a record number of BTL companies set up in 2025 – up another 8% on the previous year – taking us to more than 443,000 active UK BTL companies registered at Companies House, and that momentum still appears to be rolling into this year. And while 75-80% of new BTL purchases are now going through limited companies, it’s definitely not a blanket solution, so there’s still a big role for brokers in helping landlords choose the right route.

It was also interesting to read in Fleet Mortgages’ Q4 Rental Barometer that while portfolio landlords remain the backbone of the market – with 61% of applications coming from those with four or more properties – first-time landlords are still active too, at 11%. So, despite the noise around affordability and regulation, there’s clearly no shortage of confidence in the sector.

Let’s take our usual look at some of the notable updates that we’ve had from lenders this month.

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Lots of moves from lenders

Vida Homeloans made criteria enhancements, including a maximum exposure increase for portfolio landlords, who can now be considered with up to 20 properties within a Vida portfolio and a maximum of £7.5m total exposure with the lender. Intercompany loans can now also be used as a source of deposit for BTL special purpose vehicles (SPV) applications where the applicant is an equal or majority shareholder in the trading company providing the funds.

Zephyr Homeloans made several updates in January, including new special-edition products, higher loan sizes, broader criteria and simplified interest coverage ratios (ICRs), and has followed those up in February with further enhancements. Zephyr has removed the £200 application fee across all its products and added more fee options for standard properties at 75% loan to value (LTV), including new builds and flats above commercial. Options now available are 7%, 6%, 4%, 3%, 1% and 0% on both two- and five-year fixed products.

Landbay released five new cashback products in its Premier range, standard products for landlords with up to 15 properties, to sit alongside its fee-assisted legals products. These are available to both individual and limited company applicants and offer £500 cashback, giving clients the option of either free legals or cash towards it. The five-year fixed products are available for remortgages up to 75% LTV and are priced at 5.09% with different fee levels based on the maximum loan size required.

Family Building Society improved its BTL affordability, which could lead to additional borrowing of up to 35% on pound-for-pound remortgage cases or a 15% improvement in borrowing for capital raising applications. Alongside this, the lender has launched an interest-only expat BTL two-year fixed rate at 75% LTV priced at 4.69% with a 2% product fee, showing its support to landlords abroad as well as in the UK.

Reductions of up to 30bps have been announced by Foundation across a large proportion of its specialist BTL range. This includes standard/large houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and multi-unit freehold blocks (MUFBs), where prices now start from 4.54%. F3 products have also seen a 30bps reduction, while short-term lets and holiday let products have been reduced by up to 15bps. Accompanying these reductions has been the introduction of fixed rate products at different LTVs within the specialist BTL range.

At the start of February, TSB launched portfolio BTL lending for landlords with up to 10 mortgaged properties. The maximum LTV is 75%, with loans available at £25,005-£1m. Both purchase and remortgage applications are accepted, and landlords will be able to have up to five BTL mortgages with TSB. Purchase rates start from 3.89% and remortgage from 3.94%, both for a two-year fixed up to 60% LTV.

Dudley Building Society cut mortgage rates by up to 1.3% across a number of its ranges, including BTL and specialist lending. As part of the reductions, the expat BTL two-year discount product has been cut from 6.4% to 5.1% at 70% LTV with a £999 fee. The expat BTL five-year fixed rate up to 70% LTV has been reduced by 0.44% and is now priced at 5.15% with a £1,999 fee. Five-year fixed rates for UK-based landlords are now available from 5.1% following a 0.7% reduction.

And finally, Keystone Property Finance has added two short-term, higher-LTV products to its refurb to let range to make finance for light refurbishment works more accessible to landlords. With lending up to 70% LTV on rolled-up options and 75% LTV on serviced options, rates start from 0.85% per month on terms of up to six months with a 2% arrangement fee. There are no exit fees or early repayment charges.