New lending figures show a healthy and robust sector

although some in the press would have you believe otherwise.

Lending figures published by UK Finance show how resilient the buy-to-let sector is.

In 2018, lending totalled £36.8bn compared with £35.6bn in 2017. There has also been a spike in re-mortgages following the two-year anniversary of the stamp duty land tax surcharge and we may see more of the same this year as landlords come out of three-year products taken out in the run-up to April 2016.

The lending figure for January this year – £3.28bn including product transfers – was up month on month and only down very slightly compared with January 2018. These results hardly indicate pending doom – but neither do they sell newspapers.

Demand is still growing for quality rental properties

Demand for quality rental property continues to grow, this year alone it’s grown by 7% against figures issued for last year. All the measures the Government have taken to curtail the buy-to-let market really don’t seem to of had the desired effect.

The problem is now that supply of properties has fallen by 13.8% in the same period. On average for every quality property available to rent in a Town/City location 3 people are in competition for the occupancy. As you can see this is causing great concern for prospective tenants across the whole of the UK, especially in the major Town/City areas.

On top of all these disturbing figures it is expected that the demand for rental properties is likely to increase well into 2019. Although there has been a significant increase in first time buyers securing a property many still cannot raise the necessary deposit.

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