Metro Bank extends BTL AST requirement to 36 months

The change comes in the context of the lender’s wider ambition to enhance its credentials as a specialist lender and to offer more flexibility to clients.

The previous maximum was 12 months. The change comes with a requirement for an annual break clause to be included in the AST.

The break clause lets landlords terminate a tenancy agreement during the fixed-term if necessary.

The change applies for single households only, and multiple tenancies are not accepted.

The change will mean that Metro now accepts longer tenancies for buy-to-let mortgages. Lenders have been criticised in the past for stipulating that BTL products cover short tenancies only — when tenants may want the stability of knowing they can rent a home for a longer period.

Metro Bank currently offers five-year fixed stress test of 4 per cent at 140 per cent of the mortgage interest calculated on its specialist BTL offering, with a maximum loan-to-value of 75 per cent.

The specialist BTL product also has a maximum age of 85, with up to four applicants able to be considered. There is also no minimum income, subject to rental void plausibility check and top slicing considered from earned income.