Fleet Mortgages is the fourth lender to launch seven-year fixed mortgages exclusively for buy-to-let investors, with rates of 3.29 and 3.59 per cent.
The specialist lender, which was bought by Starling Bank for £50mn last year, is offering the remortgage-only deal on loans of anywhere between £25,001 and £1mn at a 75 per cent loan-to-value. Product fees range from 2 to 2.5 per cent.
Steve Cox, Fleet Mortgages’ chief commercial officer, said the lender’s focus was on offering a variety of product options for landlord borrowers, including those who want to fix their monthly mortgage payments over a longer term.
“The introduction of these new seven-year fixes allows them to do just that and provides them with rate and mortgage certainty,” said Cox.
“At present we appear to have a rising interest-rate environment, so it’s not surprising to see landlords seeking longer-term fixed-rate options that allow them to mitigate this.
“We believe these mortgage options – available in all three parts of our core range – allow advisers and their landlord clients to plan for the long term.”
The other three lenders offering seven-year fixes for landlords include fintech lenders Habito and LendInvest, as well as CHL Mortgages - see the table, below, from Moneyfacts.
| Lender | Seven-year fixed rates for buy-to-let investors | Number of products as of April 1 |
|---|
| Fleet Mortgages | 3.29% - 3.59% | 5 |
| Habito | 3.37% - 4.71% | 44 |
| LendInvest | 3.08% - 3.24 % | 5 |
| CHL Mortgages | 3.55% - 3.93% | 6 |
Eleanor Williams, an expert at Moneyfacts, said none of these specific seven-year fixed deals are down as available to first-time buyers.
“However, 21 of the 60 seven-year fixed products for buy-to-let investors are available to first-time landlords. First-time buyer products for landlords are still a relatively niche area of the buy-to-let market.”
Fleet Mortgages had around £1.75bn in mortgages under management when Starling Bank bought it last year.
The lender claims to have originated more than £2.3bn of mortgages since its inception in 2014 and to have experienced “zero credit losses”.
Its chief executive, Bob Young, previously managed incumbent lender CHL Mortgages.
When Fleet Mortgages was bought by Starling Bank, Young said it would be able to “reduce cost of funds”, allowing its products to be more competitive.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
