Barnard, head of business development at the lender, told Mortgage Solutions the buy-to-let market would remain strong because there remained a high demand for rental properties.
“Buy-to-let is undoubtedly here to stay. It’s not a flash in the pan as people want to keep their employment status flexible, want to move around a little bit so don’t want to commit to buying somewhere. Immigration is also still there, pushing the buy-to-let sector.
“I’d like to see some changes in how people look at underwriting self-employed people and maybe innovation can help that and without a doubt the Help to Buy 2 scheme will help the market and those looking to move at higher loan-to-values.”
A recent prediction from the Council of Mortgage Lenders suggested lending in 2014 would hit £195bn but Barnard was more bullish about the next year.
“I would suggest we’re going to finish 2013 around the £165-170bn mark. There’s lots of innovation going on to try and move that forward even further and I think that will happen. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t end 2014 with £200bn of gross lending.”
