Buy-to-let business is expected to account for a significant amount of their mortgage business according to the majority of brokers. Two-thirds expect buy-to-let mortgages to account for between 11 to 50% of the business they write. Almost 1 in 10 expect to be specialists, writing more than 50% of their business in this sector, but around a quarter, anticipate doing less than 10% of their business in the buy-to-let sector.
Family terraced houses have been the most popular type of property for buy-to-let mortgages in the last three months. They accounted for six out of ten of all buy-to-let mortgages placed in the UK. Established apartments, with 16% and semi-detached family homes at 13% were also popular. Unsurprisingly, buy-to-let mortgages for the oversaturated new build apartment market found little favour.
Amateur landlords have been the source of most buy-to-let business for brokers, which reflects lender interest in this end of the market, with seven out of ten brokers suggesting smaller landlords, with one to five properties have been the most active in the buy-to-let market in the last three months.
First-time landlords have proved to be a lucrative source of business for some brokers with twice as many of them at 6% taking out mortgages than professional landlords who have more than 20 properties in their portfolios.
Graham Felstead, head of intermediary channel, NatWest Intermediary Solutions, said: “There has been much written about the encouraging prospects offered by the buy-to-let sector and this seems to be borne out by the results of our survey.
“It is interesting to note that, so far this year, it has been the so-called ‘amateur’ landlords who appear to have been the most active in the market which is precisely where the NatWest Intermediary Solutions buy-to-let product range is targeted.”
