Refinancing landlords will be a very big opportunity for brokers this year, said Andrew Montlake, managing director of Coreco Mortgage Brokers.
“I think there are a lot of landlords coming to the end of their product terms, looking for better mortgages,” said Montlake.
He added: “They’ll be taking that opportunity because a lot of them are more informed. There’s more education out there from lenders such as Paragon and the really good things a lot of brokers are doing, including on green renovations.
“Although there’s been a delay from the current government, [energy-saving measures] will be back on the agenda, maybe with a red tinge or a blue tinge, but we think they will be back.”
He said Coreco is seeing a lot of landlords pushing EPCs up from a E to a D or C and getting a better rate for doing so.
Louisa Sedgwick, commercial director of mortgages at Paragon Banking Group, said: “When we talk about property prices rising, that is also happening within the landlord environment, so actually there’s so much more equity in these properties that they can draw down.”
Sedgwick said if we start to see rates come down a bit, the likelihood is that landlords will be able to capitalise and draw down a little bit more money.
“So a bit like Monty, I think 2024 is going to be a great year for remortgage[s].”
Attracting mortgage-free landlords
The latest English Housing Survey from 2021 suggests 57% of landlords have a buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage, but 38% have unencumbered or mortgage-free properties.
Victoria Hartley, contributing editor, asked how landlords are financing these upgrades and whether brokers are establishing relationships with these clients.
Montlake said: “One thing we’re doing is getting involved with lettings agents, because that gets us in front of a lot of their landlords. Previously, brokers who deal with estate agents used to walk right past the lettings department and deal with sales, but actually it’s a bit of a gold mine.”
He also recommended market education via webinars and social media like TikTok as landlords get younger.
“That’s how we’re engaging a lot of newer landlords who might not know about the wonderful world of mortgage finance,” said Monty.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
