Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial
A selection of buy-to-let lenders have eased their acceptance criteria as they look to ramp up the number of mortgages they provide.
Many of the banks and building societies have increased their maximum loan sizes, lowered their rates and reduced the size of the deposit landlords need to qualify.
Accord Mortgages has removed its maximum property valuation cap and increased its maximum loan size back up to £1 million. The lender has also lowered the size of the deposit borrowers need to qualify to 25%.
Skipton International is offering property purchase mortgages and remortgages to expats and foreign nationals, and Gatehouse Bank will now lend up to £5 million on buy-to-lets in England and £750,000 in Wales.
Barclays and many of the smaller lenders have lowered the price of their buy-to-let rates. Specialist lenders like Zephyr Homeloans have reopened while Pepper Money has also reintroduced its prime and adverse credit mortgages.
Paragon can provide more complex buy-to-let mortgages again now that its property values have returned to work. While BM Solutions, previously Birmingham Midshires, is offering 25% deposit buy-to-let mortgages again and a let-to-buy product suitable for homeowners planning to let their home and purchase another property.
We have been speaking to a lot of people who want to purchase a buy-to-let property or refinance to secure a lower rate. Clydesdale Bank is providing 20% deposit buy-to-let mortgages providing they are taken on a capital repayment basis, and the bank is also offering £1 million+ mortgages again.
