“I think there are a lot of landlords coming to the end of their product terms, looking for better mortgages,” said Montlake.
He added: “They’ll be taking that opportunity because a lot of them are more informed. There’s more education out there from lenders such as Paragon and the really good things a lot of brokers are doing, including on green renovations.
“Although there’s been a delay from the current government, [energy-saving measures] will be back on the agenda, maybe with a red tinge or a blue tinge, but we think they will be back.”
He said Coreco is seeing a lot of landlords pushing EPCs up from a E to a D or C and getting a better rate for doing so.
Louisa Sedgwick, commercial director of mortgages at Paragon Banking Group, said: “When we talk about property prices rising, that is also happening within the landlord environment, so actually there’s so much more equity in these properties that they can draw down.”
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Sedgwick said if we start to see rates come down a bit, the likelihood is that landlords will be able to capitalise and draw down a little bit more money.
“So a bit like Monty, I think 2024 is going to be a great year for remortgage[s].”
Attracting mortgage-free landlords
The latest English Housing Survey from 2021 suggests 57% of landlords have a buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage, but 38% have unencumbered or mortgage-free properties.
Victoria Hartley, contributing editor, asked how landlords are financing these upgrades and whether brokers are establishing relationships with these clients.
Montlake said: “One thing we’re doing is getting involved with lettings agents, because that gets us in front of a lot of their landlords. Previously, brokers who deal with estate agents used to walk right past the lettings department and deal with sales, but actually it’s a bit of a gold mine.”
He also recommended market education via webinars and social media like TikTok as landlords get younger.
“That’s how we’re engaging a lot of newer landlords who might not know about the wonderful world of mortgage finance,” said Monty.