Paymentshield’s new figures coincide with the 10th anniversary of the buy-to-let (BTL) market which has seen a record 700,000 BTL mortgages at the end of 2005, a rise of 33 per cent from 2004.
The increase in the number of landlords taking out B&C policies over the last year reflects the growth of BTL. It also highlights the growing number of landlords taking action to protect tenants’ property and their rental income against the worst case scenario.
Chris Traynor, sales and marketing director at Paymentshield, commented: “It is encouraging to see that more and more landlords are taking steps to insure their property investment. Landlords B&C cover is an incredibly important cover and it provides peace of mind by covering most landlord’s worst case scenarios such as fire, theft or flooding.
“The BTL market has seen an incredible boom ever since it was first created in 1996 and there are no signs of a market slowdown yet. While our figures show that landlords are taking action to insure their BTL property, we are asking intermediaries to make sure they fully inform their clients about the importance of Landlords B&C cover.”
Commenting, Paul Thompson, chief executive of the Swansure Group, said: “We have seen massive growth with our B&C policies, which is why we’ve put them onto our bespoke electronic application system. B&C cover was previously sold by letting agents, but now we have gone into a regulated market, we are seeing more mortgage brokers selling it as they have a greater opportunity to capture that sale.”
