BTL Finance - News and Views

It's that time of year when every man and his dog gets to make predictions for the coming year. Now even though I don't have a dog I do have opinions and here they are:

Buy to let lending will not improve drastically within the next 12 months - it will stay fairly flat.

OK it may ease a little as far as credit scores are concerned and we even see some different innovative products available but there won't be any fundamental changes like increases in loan to value etc.

Why do I say this?
Well because the fundamentals of the lending market haven't changed and don't look like they will anytime soon. There are no new buy to let lenders on the horizon, with less competition existing lenders are happy making higher margins on their mortgages. There's no need for them to increase their risk by increasing their loan to values to get business.

However that doesn't mean it's all bad, far from it. If you can get the finance it puts you in a great position to pick up some great bargains. In fact I know from talking to many of you that you feel now is the best time to buy in years.

Affordability: get that income and deposits at the ready.
Proof of income and proof of deposits will become more and more important. As buy to let lending heads towards regulation lenders will start to put more emphasis on affordability. Traditionally affordability of buy to let mortgages was the rental criteria e.g. rent covers the interest payments by 125%. Lenders will start to look more at availability of contingency funds, existing rental properties and actual rents received when assessing affordability.

It's more important than ever that you have the necessary cash deposits to be able to do the deals. The six month remortgaging rule is not going away in a hurry so if you can get enough deposit money together you can still use the buy and remortgage strategy but it will take longer.

Interest rates will stay low - what else can I say?

Residential mortgages will start to get more competitive.
Unlike buy to let lending residential mortgages are considerably more competitive at the moment. Keep your eye out on your existing standard variable rate because there will come a time soon when it may be worth switching.

Resident Broker will continue to enhance our service to you.
The feedback we get back from you is always appreciated and we will continue to improve our service offerings. Here are just a few things we provide:

Residential and buy to let mortgages
Protection - yes that's right get your life cover in trust or potentially lose 40% of the proceeds to the tax man.

So to summarise am I positive or negative? Well I think more realistic - finance is still here and available but don't plan your strategy around finance easing up anytime soon and 85% LTV buy to let mortgages making a quick come back.

Ring 01424 205 373 or email to find out more on these products or to discuss other options. ref - PropertyHawk for No Broker Fee Offer

THIS DOCUMENT AND OTHER DOCUMENTS PROVIDED ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THE INFORMATION SHOULD NOT BE INTERPRETED TO BE A COMMITMENT ON THE PART OF RESIDENT BROKER LTD. RESIDENT BROKER LTD CANNOT GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OF ANY INFORMATION PRESENTED AFTER THE DATE OF PUBLICATION. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE USER ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE ACCURACY AND THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT.

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.