Specialist buy-to-let (BTL) lender Landbay has created a specific five-strong underwriting team dedicated to professional portfolio landlords.
The five underwriters, led by James Cooper-Smith, will focus on landlords with rental properties in a portfolio between £2m and £15m.
The team will work closely with brokers and landlord clients to help understand their business plans and where they sit in various BTL markets.
James Cooper-Smith has been with Landbay for nearly five years and initially joined as a senior mortgage underwriter. Prior to that he was BTL manager at Axis Bank, and has also held roles at Paratus AMC, Pepper Money and CHL Mortgages.
Cooper-Smith said: “The reception from the market to our portfolio team has been great. Professional landlords know their business, understand their local markets and who their competitors are. If we can tap into that it makes our assessments more accurate and we can tailor our underwriting accordingly.
“Since launching the team, we have seen an increase in landlords coming back to us, via their broker, to finance more properties. Building up relationships is positive for everyone involved, not just for us, but for the broker and landlord too.”
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
