18^th Mar 2016

The CML (Council of Mortgage Lenders) has released figures showing that there was a 22% rise in landlords taking out buy-to-let loans in January, thereby avoiding the stamp duty hike which comes into force this April.

According to the CML there were approximately 9,500 loans given the go ahead for investors in the buy-to-let market. In the previous January the number of BTL loans was around 7,500.

The total guesstimate worth of January’s borrowings undertaken by investors in buy-to-let is £1.4 billion which is up by 40% from the previous year. As highly publicised from next month landlords will have to stump up an extra 3% stamp duty surcharge for new property purchases.

Landlords were not alone in taking out a higher amount of loans in January than last year, as first time buyer’s loans increased by 14% year on year with a total worth of £3.3 billion.

The highest amount of loans being taken out in January came from homeowners who remortgaged. So within the sector there was £5.8 billion of loans a 32% increase from the same month last year and is the highest amount since January 2009.

Director General of the CML, Paul Smee, commented that borrowers: “continue to seek attractive deals, despite the lower-for longer expectations for interest rates.”


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