LendInvest, the bridging lender, is launching a range of buy-to-let loans for specialist property investors and landlords, after restrictions on lending caused many mortgage providers to pull out of the portfolio lending market.
Tighter regulations on landlord portfolios that came in earlier this year require lenders to assess the viability of every property in a landlord’s portfolio before offering them a further loan, rather than just assessing the portfolio as a whole. Affordability is also more tightly tested.
The move has made some lenders, including Platform, the buy-to-let arm of the Co-operative Bank, pull out of the market altogether, while others have tightened their criteria to cover fewer properties, or are only offering like-for-like remortgaging.
Ian Boden, sales director at LendInvest, said the range “has been created to counter the complaints and concerns we hear from brokers about the quality and accessibility of BTL loans currently on offer”.
The buy-to-let loans are available for amounts between £50,000 and £5m, and on terms of up to 30 years. A maximum loan-to-value of 80 per cent applies, and the loans are accessible via intermediaries.
David Hollingworth, mortgage broker at London & Country, said: “As the market is still bedding in after the introduction of the new requirements for portfolio landlords by the PRA, it's good news to see lenders developing propositions aimed directly at these areas.
The fear was always that choice for portfolio landlords would become much more limited but whilst not all lenders are in the market, the range of options from existing lenders and new launches like this should ensure a good range of options are available.”
