Press Release Summary: The received wisdom among many in recent months has been that the buy-to-let industry is in trouble, a sector of the economy which arose on the back of a housing boom that is now over and will consequently fade away.
Press Release Body: The received wisdom among many in recent months has been that the buy-to-let industry is in trouble, a sector of the economy which arose on the back of a housing boom that is now over and will consequently fade away.
One feature of the boom years has been an increase in the number of buy-to-let mortgages as a share of the markets, so naturally enough, one might imagine the most compelling evidence for a decline in the industry would come from a reduction in such loans.
Yet the evidence is in fact telling a different tale. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revealed that the number of loans to buy-to-let landlords has actually continued to rise. Its figures show that in the first half of 2007 the number of such loans was 171,800. In the second half - the time when the credit crunch started to take its toll - it was 179,100. In the meantime, the total of outstanding buy-to-let loans topped a million for the first time, reaching 1,038,000 in comparison with 846,000 - 23 per cent fewer - at the end of 2006.
While many doom-mongers may scratch their heads at these figures, the continued high level of demand for such property was cited by CML director general Michael Coogan as a major factor in the trend.
He commented: \"Tenant demand for private rented property remains strong and buy-to-let is fulfilling an important role in helping to deliver an increased flow of high-quality homes to rent. Buy-to-let has remained resilient in the face of the funding constraints that have affected the sector and the wider mortgage market.\"
Mr Coogan also noted that while some buy-to-let mortgage repayments had gone up because they were linked to interbank lending rates, these were now on the way down as the initial effects of the credit crunch started to wane.
Moreover, he predicted, there would still be a \"healthy appetite\" for such lending this year.
This view is shared by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA). In his response to the figures, executive director Peter Williams said the members of the organisation were convinced the year ahead will \"remain well underpinned\".
\"Indeed, they believe the combination of a slower housing market and rising in tenant demand represents a good opportunity for them to buy additional investment properties on a selective basis,\" he added.
This point was also made by personal finance writer Conal Gregory, who, writing in the Yorkshire Post, said a continued sluggishness in the residential mortgage market could be \"good news\" for investors by helping to maintain demand.
So again the news appears to be healthy for buy-to-let. As if the optimistic surveys were not enough, the tangible evidence that the sector is still growing is there to see, with ample reason to believe it will go on doing so.
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2025
