During Aldermore’s Mortgage Market Insight, in collaboration with Mortgage Solutions, Jon Cooper, director of property distribution at Aldermore, said the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Act and upcoming minimum energy-efficiency requirements were “just another couple of things loaded onto landlords” but said Aldermore still saw the sector as very healthy.
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“People say it’s disappearing, I say it’s grown up,” Cooper added, saying it had been professionalised over many years, and the recent changes were challenges that would cause more amateur landlords to exit.
Aldermore Insights with Jon Cooper: Edition 9 – Why lending strategy is becoming more central in buy to let
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He said rental yields were still positive and rent was outpacing inflation, and larger landlords saw these as opportunities they could grow in.
David Hollingworth, associate director of communications at L&C Mortgages, said some of the smaller, amateur landlords who had been in the market for some time would be “sticking it out” and look at the capital growth of their investment.
He agreed that the changes would “layer up” and leave professional landlords in the market “who treat it as a business – they always have treated it as a business or they are coming into it, fresh, understanding what those challenges look like and taking them on with a different mindset than perhaps that amateur landlord ever did”.
Landlord activity is becoming more complex
Hollingworth said lenders had been quick to flex criteria to bring down costs for landlords and bring more limited company options.
He said there would be more demand for limited company remortgage products.
Cooper said there had been more “bridge-linked strategies”, mentioning Aldermore’s recent acquisition of bridging lender Octane to facilitate these transactions. He also said many landlords had teams waiting to turn auction purchases into houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), enabling the lender to immediately assess the market value.
Cooper added: “We are starting to see bigger landlords buy those amateur landlord properties… we’re now starting to see [landlords say] ‘how can we buy the limited company?’.”
This video was filmed in May 2026 and is the third in a series of four videos. Watch the first part here: Sector’s lurch from one uncertainty to the next underscores broker value – Aldermore video
Watch the second part here: Brokers should challenge lenders to find solutions for borrowers – Aldermore video
