Lenders urge government not to regulate buy-to-let mortgages

Buy-to-let lenders represented by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have urged the Treasury NOT to regulate buy-to-let mortgages according to latest reports in the FT.

The CML has argued that buy-to-let loans mortgages are commercial transactions between commercially aware individuals and therefore should not require the same level of control that affects residential borrowers.

Property Hawk would support this view. Obtaining a buy-to-let mortgage itself is a commercial decision and those landlords deciding to use buy-to-let finance will have sufficient understanding of how they work and the risks involved.


Buy-to-let loans are not the real danger

What is more potentially dangerous is the intermediate companies, such as Imagine Homes. The failed buy-to-let investment business set up by Grant Bovey. This business and many like it have peddled and packaged a myth of residential investment as a one way investment bet. it is these businesses which packaged the investment product in a way that new investors were deluded into thinking that being a landlord was just like investing in a saving account that should be regulated.

Regulating buy-to-let mortgages would just penalise often experienced landlords that are more than aware that investing in property is NOT a one way ticket. The very fact that these investors are obtaining a loan individually and are not paying middle men stupid fees demonstrates that they have their commercial head screwed on properly and therefore do not need to be subject to further controls and restrictions in buy-to-let lending.

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