According to specialist mortgage broker, Mortgages for Business, 60% of landlords are planning to increase their portfolios over the next six months.
With LSL Property Services confirming a third month of rent rises across most of the UK, landlords are looking to capitalise on increasing demand in the rental market.
David Whittaker, managing director of Mortgages for Business described landlords as “bullishly confident”.
84% of investors who want to expand said they plan to purchase more houses and flats by the end of the year. The 159 investors polled called for lenders to help them with their plans to expand.
The percentage looking to downsize their portfolios has fallen from 6% last quarter to just 3%.
Mr Whittaker explained: “Landlord appetite for buying residential property is high.
“This will support the private rented sector and ease the strain on would be renters chasing too few properties.”
As well as houses and flats more complex investments are becoming increasingly popular. 25% of respondents said that they were considering purchasing either HMOs, multi-units or semi-commercial property (or a combination of the three).
There were calls from more than three quarters of landlords for lenders to do more to support them.
As well as raising issue with rates, fees and LTVs landlords are looking for buy to let mortgages that cater for more specialist scenarios. They would like to see more products for limited company applicants, products for holiday lets and increased lending to ex-pats.
Landlords want to see increased case-by-case underwriting rather than computer based lending decisions.
54% of investors planning to expand revealed they will need to refinance their existing properties. Of these, 20% said they would struggle to secure finance because of lack of equity.
8% of investors revealed they have been asked by lenders to refinance elsewhere.
