Skipton International breaks £500m BTL lending with stamp duty holiday push

The Guernsey-regulated arm of Skipton Building Society said it had seen increased interest from international investors buying UK property after the easing of the UK’s lockdown.

“The milestone achievement follows a steady increase in loan approvals and a recent flurry of post lockdown activity,” it said.

It added that July had been a record-breaking month in terms of online enquiries with the lender’s mortgage calculator seeing 76 per cent more activity than June.

In the main this was driven by the commencement of the stamp duty holiday in England announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak, it noted.

Business development manager Roger Hughes said: “This £500m landmark figure is testament to the hard work of the Skipton International team, who have excelled in light of mounting mortgage enquiries and applications.

“Skipton returned to the buy-to-let mortgage market in May, extending application criteria to once again include investment properties in England, Wales and Scotland as lockdown relaxed.

“The stamp duty holiday announcement came at a time when enquiry levels were already increasing.

“We are finding that British expatriates and foreign nationals are particularly interested in purchasing buy-to-let properties, and our online calculator has been exceptionally busy,” he added.