The figures showed that its lending to new landlords increased by 123 per cent over the last year. New BTL lending in the first half of 2005 was around £9.9 billion – slightly higher than the second half of 2004. The Society said the increase bucks the national trend.
But the figures also revealed that BTL lending in the first six months of 2005 was actually 4 per cent down on the second half of the previous year, although this is up on the 18 per cent decline registered between the first and second halves of last year – from 119,900 to 97,800 mortgages.
However, the value of the entire sector is currently estimated at £63.5 billion across 632,000 BTL mortgages which accounts for 7 per cent of UK outstanding residential mortgage lending.
Tony Capon, head of intermediary support and development at the Derbyshire, said: “We’ve enhanced our BTL products by increasing maximum exposures to £5 million per investor, [raising] LTV limits and improving the required rental covenant.
“With more lenders focusing on the market, property investors now have an attractive choice of products to suit their needs and we forecast a bright future for BTL.”
Lynsey Scrivener, head of marketing at specialist buy-to-let broker The Money Centre, said: “The market will be very competitive. With rates down and regulation out of the way lenders are all trying to get a piece of the pie. But there will be more serious investors benefiting rather than new ones.”
