"In lieu of government support for the sector, it’s important that our efforts continue to be far-reaching and support landlords of all sizes and circumstances."
Given the anti-landlord policies of successive governments, it’s hard not to feel like it’s been left to likes of lenders to do the heavy lifting to support landlords. While it’s still early days into this new Labour government – which in its election bumf called itself the party of ‘wealth creation’ – it still doesn’t yet seem like it is set to change any time soon.
In truth, lenders across the buy-to-let sector are continuing to innovate in their products and criteria, as well as reduce rates where possible to help both brokers and landlords.
Nonetheless, in lieu of government support for the sector, it’s important that our efforts continue to be far-reaching and support landlords of all sizes and circumstances. In particular, we need to pay close attention to smaller, more amateur landlords to not just keep them in the market, but to give them a platform to grow.
Following the traditional definition, amateur landlords are those with up to three properties. For some, they could even be a landlord by circumstance – perhaps taking on the family home after the death of a parent or loved one. For others, it’s part of plans to supplement their pension or retirement income. In many cases, these landlords are less likely to operate as a business or even as a limited company, instead choosing to prioritise longstanding relationships with good tenants as part of a more holistic approach.
While many larger portfolio landlords are battle tested and invested for the long haul, smaller landlords and those accidental landlords perhaps present more of a flight risk – especially given the challenges in the market and the wider economy in the last couple of years. There’s no question that a mix of both amateur and professional landlords is absolutely pivotal to the growth and continued success of the private rental sector (PRS), especially as one-in-five households in England and Wales rely on it for housing.
Thankfully, the initial signs for keeping these landlords are encouraging. According to our latest landlord survey, 45% of landlords with three or less properties are actively looking to buy new properties in the next 12 months. Compare this to our findings at start of 2023 where the overwhelming majority (78%) had no intention of buying, this is really positive. It’s important we continue to nurture this and support our broker clients in meeting this demand.
At Landbay for example, we’ve just launched a new range on non-portfolio products, designed for what has traditionally been known as amateur landlords with three or less properties. It is a range of five-year fixed rate products, available at up to 75% LTV and with rates starting at 4.39%. It is also available with our variable fee structure to enhance affordability.
We’re really pleased to be able to add to our range, along with other new products and a raft of rate reductions across our range. While there will always be those ready to write off buy-to-let and bemoan the challenges, we are hugely optimistic for the rest of the year. Above all, we’ve seen already this year that lenders are willing to innovate and stand ready and willing to lend. Given the prospects for inflation, the base rate and for swaps, that seems unlikely to change.
Nonetheless, the objective must be to ensure our product range is as broad and competitive as possible to help broker clients support landlords of all shapes and sizes. And it’s not just about purchase too – although it is clearly important. The sector as a whole has done great work to ensure options are there for those still facing the challenge of a tricky remortgage.
From a Landbay perspective, we’ve continued to strengthen our like-for-like remortgage range for those with no change to their current borrowing requirements. This includes a lower stress test of just payrate to help with those affordability calculations.
