News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the April / May 2003 issue RPI news archive

Landlords shop for best mortgages - April / May 2003

Landlords have been busy remortgaging their properties to take advantage of competitive loan offers, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has reported.

Of the £12.2bn buy to let lending last year, about a third represented remortgaging, said the CML.

Overall buy to let lending increased by 63 per cent in the second half of 2002 over the same period in 2001. In total some £24.2bn was outstanding on buy to let mortgages at the end of 2002, about 3.5 per cent of all residential mortgage lending.

Buy to let mortgages are less risky propositions than conventional home loans, the CML reported. Average maximum loan to value ratios remained unchanged in 2001 and 2002 at 80 per cent while average minimum rental cover remained at 130 per cent. Buy to let mortgage arrears of three months or more had fallen to less than 0.5 per cent, less than half the average for the mortgage market as a whole.

'Buy to let lending is often portrayed as more risky and prone to market shocks than mainstream lending. But our figures show the opposite', said CML director general Michael Coogan.
 

other artilces from the April / May 2003 issue

• Competent regulation
• Private landlords set for 'selective licensing'
• Local crackdowns on HMO landlords
• Property prospects better in the north
• Landlords shop for best mortgages
• DTI acts against property investment companies
• Letting returns put at over 20 per cent
• Average house tops £145,00
• London landlord given life sentence
• Government admits to wider anti-social problems
• In brief