Paragon's FACT research has tracked broker trend since 1995.
One in five brokers expect to write more buy-to-let business in 2020 according to research by Paragon.
Paragon's FACT research, which has tracks broker trends, also showed that demand for buy-to-let finance for portfolio extension is also at its highest level for over two years.
Remortgaging continues to dominate brokers’ buy-to-let mortgage business.
Nearly one in four (24.5%) buy-to-let mortgages were written for portfolio extension whilst 50% was for remortgaging purposes, a fall from 55% the previous quarter.
Richard Rowntree, managing director of mortgages at Paragon, said: “Buy-to-let lending has been driven by remortgage business in recent years, so it’s great to see the proportion of lending for portfolio extension purposes increase and hit its highest level for nearly three years.
“It’s also encouraging to see that the balance of brokers expecting to write more buy-to-let business is positive for 2020 as confidence has been subdued for much of the past four years.
"These are green shoots and we hope that they will continue throughout this year on the back of a more certain regulatory, economic and political environment.”
Of buy-to-let landlords remortgaging during the final quarter a majority (61%) were doing so to secure a better rate of interest, with nearly a third (31%) remortgaging to raise capital.
Overall, brokers said that buy-to-let accounted for 17.7% of overall business during Q4 2019, the highest proportion for a year.
