Buy-to-letAug 6 2019

Buy-to-let calculator launches for advisers

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Buy-to-let calculator launches for advisers
Aidan Crawley/Bloomberg

BrokerSense has launched a buy-to-let mortgage calculator which gives brokers a breakdown of lenders’ maximum lending amounts.

Through the service, mortgage advisers can input client details — including property value and rental income — to find out details about lending criteria on the specific client scenario from more than 75 buy-to-let lenders.

The service also includes a specialist portfolio calculator for brokers with clients with more than four rental properties.

The calculator will show how many lenders will lend on the property, how each property fits within the portfolio, how it will affect the rest of the portfolio if the client were to increase the loan on a particular property and how different increases in rent affect the amount that can be borrowed against each property.

According to BrokerSense, the calculator provides the results “within seconds”.

The buy-to-let offering has been added to the firm's mainstream mortgage calculator, which provides brokers with the same service for residential properties, which launched in January.

Stuart Phillips, director at BrokerSense, said: “After many years of being a broker I understand the frustrations of trying to work out exactly what a client can borrow.  

“This becomes much harder when it comes to buy-to-let, especially if a client has a portfolio of properties.”

Mr Phillips said BrokerSense had been designed to answer this problem and take away “one of the headaches” brokers face each day, as well as giving some brokers who had traditionally avoided buy-to-let clients access to a new market.

He added: “Our aim has been to eliminate duplication and unnecessary administration work by bringing the type of technology used by robo-advice platforms and digital advisers to the traditional mortgage broker market, helping brokers to fight the rise of the robo-adviser.”

Stefan Cork from Mortgage Advice Bureau said the calculator was a great tool which provided a quick and accurate overview of many lenders’ affordability calculators. 

He said: “As a busy adviser, this makes my life simpler and saves me valuable time that I can use to offer my clients the best possible service.”

Malcolm Davidson from UK MoneyMan also thought the calculator was a “real time-saving tool”, added that he was often “really surprised” by the output.

BrokerSense costs £10 per month for the buy-to-let or the mainstream mortgage calculator, or £15 per month for the two.

imogen.tew@ft.com

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