April sees sharp drop in landlords looking for new investment homes

The figures revealed that the number of landlords registering to buy in England and Wales had fallen by 10.4% between March and April and by 39.4% annually.

When looking at the number of landlords registering to buy in London, the fall was 10% for the month and 55.7% annually.

Although the number of buy-to-let sales in England and Wales had nudged up by 0.1% in March, it was down by 57.3% on the previous year.

In London, buy-to-let sales dropped by 18.5% on a monthly basis and 71.4% on an annual basis.

Adele Turton, managing director at Plan A Mortgage Brokers, said: “There is too much uncertainty in the market. The Stamp Duty [levy] has knocked purchases on the head. Previously, when people had a nest egg they might have wanted to get into the buy-to-let market. They would get their deposit together and the Stamp Duty was not much of an issue.”

She added: “But now with the Stamp Duty they can get less for their money, and their returns are going to be lower. I think people are having to take it more seriously, which is a good thing, and they are having to put some proper business planning in place about what they are doing.”

Doug Hall, director at distributor 3mc, said the figures did not reflect his own experience and that the firm was 48% or 49% up on the number of buy-to-let applications through the door when compared to last year. He explained: “The growth we are seeing is in the limited company space as opposed to private individuals.”