The majority of brokers have reported strong growth in demand from landlord clients in the first quarter of 2015, the latest research from Paragon Mortgages found.
The specialist lender’s Financial Advisor Confidence Tracking survey shows that 91 per cent of brokers have seen growing or stable business from landlord customers and just 7 per cent of them report weak demand.
Buy-to-let mortgages accounted for nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of the brokers’ business in the first three months of this year.
Over half (53 per cent) of professionals expect that buy-to-let business levels will remain unchanged in the second quarter of 2015, while 45 per cent are projecting growth.
The intermediaries’ confidence index, measuring the average number of mortgage cases completed in the current quarter against expected business levels in the next quarter, has improved in the first three months of 2015. The index recovered throughout 2013 and 2014, after it fell from 2008 onwards and reached its lowest level in the third quarter of 2010.
John Heron, director of Paragon Mortgages, commented:
“We have been running our survey with a panel of 200 intermediaries since 1995, tracking key trends and views on the buy-to-let and wider mortgage markets.
“There were no great movements in this quarter’s survey findings, what is evident though, is intermediaries are feeling optimistic about the buy-to-let market. Following the results of the General Election, it will be interesting to see whether we see an increase in intermediaries’ case load as confidence increases in the wider housing market.”
