The latest data from Charcolonline, shows online buy to let deals increased from 14 per cent in July to 17 per cent last month, illustrating that experienced buy to let investors head for the internet when looking for the best deals. At the same time, first-time buyers edged down from 15 per cent in July to 11 per cent in August, a figure still slightly up on the 10 per cent average of first time-buyer deals done online in the last six months.
However, overall online mortgage applications in August were up 17 per cent on the previous month.
Drew Wotherspoon at John Charcol, commented: “I think it is clear that more and more borrowers are becoming very astute in the way they arrange their mortgages.Buy to let, after all, is about yields and profit, so arranging a mortgage online makes logical sense.We are dealing with experienced professionals who know and follow the market, so I am not surprised that a greater proportion are going online to arrange finance. We also see that first-time buyers are a little shy to buy, but this obviously further accentuates the good market for rentals.Combine this with a still sluggish property market and it makes for an excellent environment for the canny buy to let investor.”
The average mortgage amount applied for online last month was £151,272 to finance a property value of £257,456, up 1 per cent on July but 18 per cent less than the average property value in June. Therefore the average loan to value in August was 59 per cent, allowing borrowers access to a wide range of market leading deals.
Charcolonline data also shows:
Remortgaging still accounts for the majority of online borrower activity with 54 per cent of applications last month, up from 52 per cent in July and a 6 month average of 53 per cent.
Home movers made up 18 per cent of online mortgage deals in August up from 16 per cent in July and 14 per cent in June.
The average age of the online borrower last month was 37; 74 per cent were male and 52 per cent of mortgage applications were made jointly.
The vast majority (63 per cent) of mortgages done online were repayment, with 7 per cent being part repayment/part interest only and the remaining 30 per cent interest only.
