More people are turning to variable-rate mortgages than fixed rate products for the buy-to-let market, according to online buy-to-let specialists Landlord Centre.
In its Property Investor Profile tracker for the second quarter of the year, it found that the buy-to-let market has remained fairly static through 2012.
The average loan size has decreased £261 from £158,696 in the first quarter of the year to £158,435, while the average rental yield has increased slightly from 6.29 per cent to 6.6 per cent.
While the change in the average variable rate has also changed very slightly, moving from 4.07 per cent to 4.1 per cent, the fixed rate market continues to increase relatively, moving from an average of 4.82 per cent to 5.06 per cent.
Landlord Centre chief executive Andy Young said: “Since the beginning of the year, the buy-to-let mortgage market has improved with more lenders and products now available.
“This has led to greater competition between providers, together with persisting low interest rates, resulting in relatively stable product pricing overall.
“However, the average fixed rate increased more noticeably, the highest since the beginning of 2010, although this may reflect the wider availability of higher loan-to-value fixed rates which tend to be priced higher. It will be interesting to see how average fixed rate pricing varies during the second half of the year.”
