Landlords raising funds for home improvements

Landlords are increasingly turning to re-mortgaging to finance property improvements, according to the latest figures.

In the 2017 calendar year the figure was 8,459 out of 152,100. But in 2016 only 1.9% of landlords used re-mortgaging to help fund house renovations. This represents 2,967 landlords out of 153,000 re-mortgaging.

The greatest increase was in the East of England. In the last 12 months one in ten re-mortgaging landlords used cash on home improvements, up nearly 7% in the last two years.

Landlords in London took out the most money to spend on buy-to-let improvements, £35,470 on average. This is over three times the amount an average landlord in Yorkshire withdrew £11,150. Across Great Britain as a whole, the average landlord re-mortgaging to make improvements took out £22,850.

It seems a record number of landlords are re-mortgaging to release money to spend on their properties instead of trading up. This trend is more than likely down to the new energy regulations just introduced which require landlords to make significant improvement to the properties energy usage.

The additional transaction costs incurred from the stamp duty changes for second-homeowners means more landlords are choosing to invest in their current properties, such as refurbishing and improving overall.

There are plenty of very good re-mortgage deals still available although interest rates seem to be on the up. If you would like to find out more, please do make contact and one of our advisers will be pleased to help.