Mortgage News
Portfolio expansion driving BTL remortgaging
Almost half of all buy-to-let remortgages handled by brokers are being taken out by landlords seeking to release capital in order to expand their portfolios, according to Paragon Mortgages.
Its research showed that 47% of buy-to-let remortgages by intermediaries were for raising capital, with 35% aimed at securing a better mortgage interest rate.
Further reasons included landlords’ existing lenders encouraging remortgaging (8%) and landlords’ lack of satisfaction with their current lender (7%).
CML figures showed that remortgaging accounted for two-thirds of the 21% increase in gross buy-to-let lending in Q2, which totalled £3.5bn for the quarter. Of this, 53% was advanced for remortgage purposes, at £1.86bn.
John Heron, managing director of Paragon Mortgages, highlighted that around two-thirds of private rental properties have no mortgage, while the average LTV of those with a mortgage is 48%.
He said: “There is a huge amount of equity in the sector that landlords are looking to utilise to help fund portfolio growth.
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“CML figures show there was a significant increase in buy-to-let remortgage cases between the first and second quarters of this year. It appears a large proportion of that is from landlords releasing equity to generate seed capital for portfolio expansion.
“In a market characterised by high rental demand, we could see this becoming more commonplace.”