43% of landlords are currently looking to raise capital at the point of maturity
This article was created in partnership with Paragon Bank.
Buy-to-let mortgages are big business. In 2025 alone, industry data predicts that over 190,000 buy-to-let mortgages worth £26.2 billion mature - that includes 136,898 five-year fixes from 2020 and 54,017 two-year loans from 2023. With that figure applying to new business, the total is likely to be much higher.
And it’s a recovery that’s been hard won, particularly after the past decade we’ve endured. From political upheavals to economic downturns, a global pandemic, an eye-watering mini-Budget and even Brexit – the buy-to-let landscape has had a tough time of it.
Now, thankfully, the market is finally seeing signs of life. In a recent interview with Mortgage Introducer, Paragon Bank’s Mortgages commercial director Russell Anderson explained that while this is great news, there’s several factors landlords need to consider before deciding to remortgage their buy-to-let property.
“Firstly, landlords really need to see their broker and get some advice,” he told Mortgage Introducer. “It’s important that a landlord speaks to their broker before looking at their product switch verses their remortgage. [It’s about] comparing the benefits of staying with your existing lender [against] the benefits of remortgaging elsewhere.
43% of landlords looking to raise capital at point of maturity
“Landlords need to ensure they allow time for that to happen too. Rates have increased over the period since the mini-Budget, meaning the Standard Variable Rate (SVR) is higher – there’s typically more of an impact if they move on to SVR.”
At Paragon, their research found that 43% of landlords are currently looking to raise capital at the point of maturity, with 37% planning to increase their portfolios. What’s more, a large proportion will fund these purchases by releasing equity from other properties in their portfolio or using existing capital. With these borrower strategies in mind, Paragon has created a Retention Team purely designed to support brokers – as well as having a super-efficient process to make it easier to manage applications for landlords with maturing mortgages.
‘Post the mini-Budget, we went into a rising rate environment’
“We have a streamlined process here,” added Anderson. “At Paragon, we pay 40 basis points on a procuration fee for retention. We understand that brokers put a lot of hard work and advice in here, so we make sure that we reward the brokers appropriately for looking after that client.”
Recent interest changes have also impacted remortgaging in the buy-to-let space. The 2022 mini-Budget served as a turning point here—and the remortgaging landscape hasn’t looked the same since.
“Post the mini-Budget, we went into a rising rate environment,” added Anderson. “In the last couple of years, we’ve seen increased product switches because of the higher rates impacting affordability.”
In practical terms, many landlords have opted for internal product transfers over external remortgages. The reason? Cost and complexity.
“Customers may look at sticking with their original lender. With some of the customers, there's still that split between a two-year and a five-year depending on what they feel future interest rates are going to be,” Anderson explained.
To ease these affordability challenges, Paragon has shifted focus towards product optionality—delivering a flexible range of solutions tailored to individual borrower circumstances.
“We have a suite of products that has nil fee. So if customers don't want to pay a fee—because sometimes customers prefer to minimise upfront costs —we've got [that] option. We have percentage fee options and then we have flat fee options too.”
This year marks a significant uptick in remortgaging activity across the buy-to-let sector. A large wave of two-year deals struck in the post-mini Budget spike are now maturing, creating distinct borrower behaviours.
“There’s industry data around the level of customers that’re coming up to remortgage. It’s a large year in buy-to-let remortgaging,” Anderson added. “The dynamics of this year are different to past years – there’s the first set of two-year rates which are coming off those higher rates after the mini-Budget, there’s five-year fixed rates that might have that payment shock upward - but then there’s also less of a payment shock depending on what rate the clients went on in that new world of higher rates.”
So are landlords actively remortgaging, or is product switching still dominant? Well, according to Anderson, it’s a bit of both.
“Our remortgaging remains consistent, but our product switches remain strong as well,” Anderson added. “Last year, eight out of 10 customers chose to take a new product with Paragon.”
And the incentive is clear – especially when dealing with a team as expert and dedicated as Paragon.
“The benefit for a client is there's no affordability assessment. So if they chose to go down a two-year versus a five-year, depending on where they think future rates [are heading]... then you've got those affordability [tests] that the landlord needs to achieve…” if they go into the open market.
Looking to the future of the remortgaging buy-to-let sector, one key message Anderson wants to drive home is this: brokers are more critical than ever in this evolving market. “Go and speak to a broker,” he told Mortgage Introducer. “Because the broker will help you here.”
He also warns landlords not to underestimate the timeline—especially when remortgaging more complex asset types.
“We’re seeing more customers moving to higher yielding properties. That’s HMOs, multi-unit blocks, student lets... if you are looking to remortgage, there’s more legal work on HMO with the licenses. It’s about making sure that you're allowing enough time to go through the process, so you avoid going on to the SVR.”
And that SVR jump is no joke. Currently, the markets moved from the ultra-low rate environment, where the SVR was fairly low as well, to a higher rate cycle.
Here, Paragon is investing in technology and talent to support brokers in managing this complexity – especially in regards to Paragon’s brand new origination platform
“Our platform uses data sources and API connections to make that process simpler, give the broker back more time and offer certainty of decision to our customers,” added Anderson.
But it’s not just about systems - it’s also about people. At Paragon, they have 25 years in buy-to-let experience across both their sales teams and their underwriters. And that’s experience you just can’t but a price on.
“We have business development managers who are there to support brokers, and we’ve got really experienced underwriters that understand the buy-to-let market.”
As Anderson told Mortgage Introducer, Paragon’s expertise matters even more in the limited company space, which has exploded since the 2016 tax changes.
“If you look at the Hamptons data... the number of buy-to-let companies set up to hold buy-to-let property surged 332% in nine years, with a milestone of circa 401,000 in February 2025.”
Because for Paragon, deep roots in this space mean one thing: “Being in that sector, we understand that, so we can support our brokers and our customers.”
