A survey on the buy to let market has found that 60 per cent of respondents plan to increase their property portfolios in the next six months.
Specialist mortgage broker Mortgages for Business carried out the study, which also found that 95 per cent of landlords have borrowing on their current portfolio.
The research, which polled 251 property investors, suggested landlord appetite for more purchases stems from the attractive yields available across a variety of investment property types.
Results suggest that investors are looking into having portfolios with more diversity, with a rise in those planning to purchase houses in multiple occupation (29 per cent), multi-unit freehold blocks (19 per cent), semi-commercial property (15 per cent) and commercial property (15 per cent).
As might be expected 82 per cent of survey respondents were also considering purchasing at least one vanilla buy to let property.
Whilst it is not known which survey respondents have already refinanced in the last year, 45 per cent of landlords said they were looking to remortgage in the next three to six months.
Commenting on the findings, David Whittaker, managing director at Mortgages for Business, says: “With buy to let mortgage rates at historic lows, this strategy may well prove prudent in protecting them against future interest rate rises. Of those who are not looking to remortgage, we must surmise that some will be keen to hang onto their existing reversion rates for as long as possible.
“It will be interesting to see whether the situation changes as the year goes on. Accordingly the next survey will include a question about recent remortgaging activity.”
Only 3 per cent of landlords say they are planning to trim their portfolios over the next six months, down from 6 per cent six months ago.
When asked about initial mortgage rate periods, five year fixed rate products came out as the favoured choice amongst property investors, with 34 per cent of the votes.
This reflects current advice from Mortgages for Business that investors should consider five year fixed rates as part of their portfolio finance strategy.
Of course there were still suggestions for improvements with the biggest issue being lending criteria. Nearly half (47 per cent) made comment that they would like easier lending criteria, including relaxing age restrictions and removing non-property related income requirements.
The research also found, perhaps surprisingly, that 41 per cent of respondents indicated earning less than £25,000 a year in addition to rent. This is despite most buy to lenders stipulating landlords must have an additional annual income of around £25,000 in order to get finance.
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