“No reason” for Buy to Let volumes to decrease in the long term

“No reason” for Buy to Let volumes to decrease in the long term


After a tumultuous first quarter of the year, Stephen Sandiford of specialist Buy-to-Let lenders Paragon believes there’s no reason for the number of investments in buy-to-let to decrease in the long term.

Speaking at the My Home Move conference, he stated he believed the yield from a Buy-to-Let investment still outstripped those an investor might make compared with other similar sized investments.

The former Head of Lending at the Dudley Building Society also said several conveyancers “fell over” in March, although he says his firm managed to sustain a “very high” completion rate.
Speaking afterwards to Today’s Conveyancer, he said: “I think landlords have shown over the years that they invest for the long term, in the main, and that’s certainly the evidence we as a lender and other lenders have seen.

“And certainly, there are some challenges for both lenders and landlords and the changes int he tax treatment means that for certain people, it’ll be less attractive than it would’ve been, but I suppose the question for landlords looking to invest in this is, is it still more or less attractive than somewhere else I might put my money, or put my effort? And, what Iw as saying, is that I think of the classes of investment, buy-to-let is still looks a very attractive investment.

“I think in the short term, I think it’s fair to say there is a bit of disruption, a bit of disturbance in the market, if you like. So volumes of transactions may well ease off in the short term, but I think in the medium to long term, I think they will pick up. I think there’s no reason, in the long term, the long run average.

“With regards to conveyancers, I think it’s interesting actually. My experience of conveyancers is that there are conveyancers, and then there are Conveyancers, and I think it’s true for certain conveyancers. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily true across the board. I think certain conveyancers perhaps have taken on too much. It’s interesting for us as at Paragon we had very high completion levels, and we didn’t experience any problems caused by our conveyancers, and we deal with quite a lot of conveyancers.

“So we didn’t see any of it, although I did hear from elsewhere in the market that some conveyancers did fall over. So, I think it could be right in part, but not necessarily with a broad brush approach, I would say.”

Josh Morris

Josh is the Journalist for the Today's Group and writes many of the articles for Today's Conveyancer. He graduated with a degree in Physics from Cardiff University in 2009 before training as a journalist. He has previously written for The Times, The Mirror and The Daily Express.

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