Buy-to-let landlords are rushing in order to remortgage their property, ahead of stricter lending rules coming into force in the near future.
Data from UK Finance suggests that remortgaging accounted for over 70% of all buy-to-let lending during July-after reaching an eight-year high in terms of volume. The rest were for new mortgages for purchasing purposes.
Lending
Buy-to-let lending totalled £3.2bn with a total of 20,500 mortgages – a small rise from last year.
In addition, the data shows that remortgaging by homeowners totalled £6.7bn – equating to 36,800 remortgagors, representing an annual increase of 12% and 10% respectively.
June Deasy, head of mortgages policy at UK Finance, observed: ‘Remortgaging strengthened in July and reached its highest level since January, with customers attracted by borrowing rates that are at or close to their historic low point.’
Landlords rushing to take advantage of new rates
‘The increase in activity in July means that, over the last year, the number of people remortgaging has been at its highest since 2009.’
‘Lending for house purchase was lower in July than in the preceding month, and we expect the market to continue to soften a little in the coming months,’ he concluded.[1]
[1] https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/9/landlords-race-to-remortgage-and-take-advantage-of-record-low-btl-rates