Buy to let mortgages gaining strength, reports London Mortgage Broker, London Mortgage Advice Monday, 30th November 2009

There are signs of a house price recovery so buy-to-let landlords are feeling their way back into the action in the property market for the first time in two years.

After a period of near-hibernation for landlords, who were hit particularly hard by the mortgage drought, The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reported yesterday that buy-to-let lending rose by 10 per cent in the three months to September, compared with the previous three months.

The industry body believes the number of property transactions will reach 810,000 this year and 850,000 in 2010. It revised its expectation of the value of net lending this year from -£5 billion to £8 billion after a quicker than expected recovery.

The CML said that buy-to-let demand for new purchases was “appreciably stronger” than for remortgages, amid continuing lending constraints that force landlords to stay on their existing deals. The number of buy-to-let loans granted rose from 21,600 in the second quarter to 23,700 in the three months to September.The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors last month reported an increase in the proportion of purchasers who are buy-to-let landlords, with 2 per cent more estate agents reporting a rise rather than a fall in investors hunting for property in the three months to September.