As interest rates shift and more fixed-term mortgage deals come to an end, brokers and their clients are looking closely at the next best step. Traditionally, remortgaging has been the go-to route as it’s often seen as a chance to shop around for better deals or to adjust a loan’s terms. But in today’s market, with clients under increasing time pressure and brokers juggling a lot of cases, we’re seeing increased demand for product transfers across our specialist buy to let range. And for good reason.

At Foundation Home Loans, we know that landlords are navigating rising costs, tighter regulations, and evolving tenant expectations.  That’s why our green mortgage range, including our EPC Saver product in partnership with Vibrant, is built specifically to support landlords who want to reduce costs today and protect their investments for the future.

We hear a lot about risk in the property market and while it's important to be aware of challenges, it’s equally vital to discuss the opportunities that come from proactively diversifying and evolving.

If we were in doubt that Government policy could considerably shift the dial regarding the UK’s housing and property markets, then we need to look at what has happened within the buy to let sector since the mid-2010s.

While landlord borrowers’ initial forays into property investment tend to be residential specific, with traditional houses and flats being purchased, as time passes and landlord confidence grows, there is an understanding amongst landlords of what is achievable by diversifying their portfolio with various property types.

As landlords increasingly turn to HMOs to maximise rental yields and help mitigate risk exposure across their portfolios, it’s no surprise that we, and our intermediary partners, are seeing an uplift in this type of business.

It's no secret that the modern UK buy to let market is constantly evolving. Landlords increasingly look beyond traditional property types to maximise rental yields and diversify their portfolios.

The words complex and specialist are often used in the intermediary market, particularly in the buy to let (BTL) sector. But are these terms still relevant, or have they become barriers that overcomplicate the lending process? Rather than hiding behind them, it’s time to simplify and clarify what specialists buy to let entail, helping brokers better serve their landlord clients.

Driven by tax efficiencies, financial planning benefits, and expanded lending opportunities, the shift towards landlords holding properties within a limited company structure has become increasingly evident in recent years.

The buy to let lending figures for 2024 will have surprised many commentators, particularly given the increase from 2023 and the anticipation of further improvements to follow.

In our Q4 2024 buy to let barometer, brought to you in conjunction with the Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research report, we evaluate the trends impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are currently shaping up.

The UK's buy to let market is shifting significantly, with more landlords choosing to incorporate. According to the Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends report for Q4 2024, limited company ownership is becoming the preferred choice for professional landlords, offering brokers a key opportunity to engage in strategic conversations

The buy to let market faces significant shifts as landlords prepare for the Renters’ Rights Bill (RRB) and potential tax reforms. The Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends report for Q4 2024 highlights growing concerns, with many landlords considering how best to adjust.

The latest Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research for Q4 2024 brings positive news for the intermediary market, highlighting landlords' continued resilience despite lingering economic pressures. The data points to encouraging levels of profitability, robust rental yields, and a persistent trend of rent increases to help landlords navigate an ever-evolving buy to let landscape.

Lenders are increasingly adapting their offerings to align with the evolving composition of landlord portfolios. A key driver behind this shift is the sustained growth of the HMO sector, where professional landlords are capitalising on higher rental yields.

The Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research for Q4 2024 highlights a significant pipeline of remortgage business, as many landlords face upcoming refinancing needs.

The specialist residential mortgage market is expanding rapidly as more borrowers seek lending solutions beyond what high-street lenders can offer. 

At the turn of the new year, many people many have set fresh resolutions focused on personal growth, financial stability, or environmental responsibility. 

We are all aware of how product transfer (PT) business has grown and how a changed interest rate environment, presenting far higher pricing to existing borrowers, has appeared to solidify its dominance. 

In recent years, the UK property market has undergone significant transformation. From a buy-to-let standpoint, while regulatory changes, rising costs, and evolving tenant preferences have prompted some landlords to rethink their strategies. 

One of the recent headlines from the research from Pegasus Insight conducted into landlord borrowers’ and their portfolio intentions, was around divestment and whether they have plans to purchase in the immediate future.

Demand and awareness around green finance is rapidly gathering momentum, driven by increasing consumer awareness and regulatory pressures that serve to emphasise the importance of energy efficiency and sustainability across the present and future UK housing market.

The financial landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, leaving many individuals facing challenges that go beyond the scope of traditional lending criteria.

Pound-for-pound remortgages might be the best kept secret in BTL lending right now. This clever feature in a lender’s criteria offers a route for intermediaries to help landlord borrowers whose rent is very tight, who therefore might believe that a product transfer with their existing lender is their only option.

Traditionally, self-employed individuals and those with irregular incomes faced significant challenges in securing mortgages due to difficulties in proving consistent income levels.

In a bid to improve energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty for millions of people, the government recently announced that it will shortly consult on proposals for private and social rented homes to achieve Energy Performance Certificate C or equivalent by 2030. 

The buy-to-let sector remains an ever-evolving landscape, marked by its share of challenges and political scrutiny. Yet, landlords continue to play a pivotal role in a housing market that depends significantly on the private rented sector to provide quality homes across the UK.

Over the past few years, we have seen a rising reliance on the intermediary market and the advice process across all areas of the mortgage market. This is especially apparent in an increasingly complex buy-to-let sector, especially from a funding and affordability standpoint.

The Q3 2024 Landlord Trends report by Pegasus Insight for Foundation Home Loans presents several challenges for the buy-to-let (BTL) sector, yet these also offer unique opportunities for mortgage intermediaries to engage with and support landlords through an evolving landscape

Engaging in the support of specialist lenders and specialist conveyancers as early in the mortgage application process as possible is a critical element in helping to produce optimal results, especially when there may be multifaceted legal implications in the offing.

In recent years, tax and regulatory changes in the UK have significantly impacted the buy-to-let market, favouring professional landlords with extensive portfolios and long-term investment strategies. 

In our Q3 2024 BTL barometer, brought to you in conjunction with the Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research report, we evaluate the trends which are impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are currently shaping up.

Understanding the ‘average’ consumer/borrower/client can be useful not least because of how it shapes our thinking about what circumstances a large number of people might be in, or the various extremes that are not ‘average’ at all.

The UK rental market continues to present opportunities for landlords due to the ongoing imbalance between supply and demand, though challenges persist. Careful portfolio management and diversification strategies are crucial for success.

The mortgage landscape is evolving to meet the needs of diverse borrowers, particularly in the specialist residential market. This includes self-employed individuals, those with complex income streams, and people with imperfect credit histories.

The UK buy-to-let remortgage market is poised for a period of significant activity, presenting an exciting opportunity for landlords and mortgage advisers alike.

With a new government now in place, it’s fair to say that landlords are anticipating potential changes that could impact their investments. So, here at Foundation Home Loans, we sought to understand landlords' expectations through our Q2 2024 Landlord Trends report, conducted by Pegasus Insight.

Despite challenges across the buy-to-let market, it’s always encouraging to see landlord’s ongoing commitment and desire when it comes to maintaining profitability and expanding their portfolios.

Rent controls and legislative change, such as the removal of Section 21 (no fault evictions), are hot topics in the current UK buy-to-let market as they hold potentially significant implications for both landlords and the intermediary market.

The UK buy-to-let market continues to witness a significant shift towards the use of limited companies for property ownership and management. A shift which was highlighted in the Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research report for Q2 2024.

In our Q2 2024 BTL barometer, brought to you in conjunction with the Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research report, we evaluate the trends which are impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are currently shaping up.

I'm sure that every homeowner and landlord would choose to own the most energy-efficient properties. However, the reality is that a large portion of the UK housing stock was not originally constructed to high energy efficiency standards, aside from new builds, and many have not been upgraded for various reasons.

Rising interest rates, regulation, tax, markets, and finance are all contributing to a complex environment for landlords, but what has been the real impact on profit margin?

For many, the term ‘key worker’ remains largely synonymous with the covid and lockdown period and while this is an unfortunate relationship, what it did highlight was the importance of a number of occupations which may have been somewhat underappreciated in the past.

The complexities associated with assessing variable incomes from self-employment and/or multiple revenue streams have long posed difficult questions for high-street mortgage lenders. Consequently, many self-employed individuals and those with diverse income sources have found it increasingly difficult to meet mainstream lending criteria.

Property professionals and residential homeowners have all faced their fair share of well-publicised issues, challenges and obstacles in recent times. However, data indicates that property in the non-residential markets – such as commercial property - have shown better resilience.

As the election approaches, just what help is needed for first time buyers and families? The event itself was certainly not unexpected and the market, including the lending community is well prepared for it.

It’s no secret that economic stability is a key component in maintaining consumer confidence, and even more so when it supported by a highly robust housing market and a mortgage arena which is not suffering from wild rate swings.

Coming into 2024, there was little surprise in the fact that a record number of buy-to-let companies had been set up over the course of the year. 

Diversification has always been a key word for any successful portfolio, and thanks to their resilience to voids, now semi-commercial/part-commercial (Mixed use) properties are joining HMOs and MUFBs in landlords’ plans.

The market has successfully navigated its way through regulation, the credit crunch, increased regulatory scrutiny, the pandemic and the infamous mini-budget.

While we have seen rates come down from their 2023 highs, a large number of landlords are coming to the end of their current deals throughout 2024 and these landlords are looking for a range of solutions to keep down any increases in mortgage costs experienced.

In an ideal world, 100% of landlords would opt to deliver the most energy efficient property possible for their tenants. 

Confidence, profitability and tenant demand are three key areas within any successful portfolio offering and when evaluating the current state of play across the buy-to-let sector. So let’s tackle these three key areas via insights from the Q1 2024 Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research report.

Supply and demand is a constant topic of conversation within the wider UK housing market, but specifically within the private rental sector (PRS), especially as the former has appeared to shrink, and the latter has continued to increase.

In our Q1 2024 BTL barometer, brought to you in conjunction with the Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends research report, we evaluate the trends which are impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are currently shaping up.

New results have recently emerged from the now eagerly awaited Consumer Price Inflation Index from the Office for National Statistics.

Moving into 2024, we noted plenty of encouraging signs emerging from landlords who were demonstrating their ongoing commitment to the buy-to-let sector and looking through a longer-term lens regarding the performance and potential of an array of property investment types.

At a certain point in life, most people will feel the appeal of being able to work for themselves, and it’s clear from the statistics that more individuals are finding their way to self-employment.

‘Why a movie poster campaign?’ you might ask.

Every mortgage tells a story. Whether that’s a family buying their forever home or a buy-to-let landlord using mortgage finance to grow an exciting business.

Landlords, and the private rented sector in general, have become accustomed to some constant buffeting over the years, be this through regulatory and legislative change, global events and/or domestic economic headwinds.

Like any lender, it’s crucial to ensure that intermediary partners fully appreciate our strengths from a product, criteria and service perspective as lines can sometimes become a little blurred, especially when operating under the ‘specialist’ banner.

As we enter a crucial Spring season for the housing and mortgage market, it will be interesting to note any transactional uplift when it comes to borrowing types, property types and on a regional basis.

For some time, there has been a widely-held opinion that a significant number of landlords are seeking to make their exit from the private rental sector (PRS), forced out by higher rates, greater costs of running properties, and taxation policies which impact on overall profitability.

One area of the buy-to-let mortgage market, and landlord borrowers’ place within it, which will be clearly noticeable to advisers – particularly over the last 12-18 months – is the nature of rates and their impact on affordability, mortgage costs, and ultimately the profitability of those properties.

Diversification has always been a key word for any successful business operating across the mortgage arena, in a market which has successfully navigated its way through regulation, the credit crunch, increased regulatory scrutiny, the pandemic and the infamous mini-budget.

When appraising our Landlord Panel research in its entirely, one common element which springs out is a renewed sense of calm across the buy-to-let market and some strong foundations on which to build over the course of 2024.

Diversification has always been a key word for any successful business operating across the mortgage arena, and these property types are expected to become even more of interest to landlords this year.

Moving into 2024, there appears to be a rising amount of well-placed optimism emerging from those landlords who remain committed to growing their portfolios and staying in the sector for longer.

There’s no doubting 2023 was a challenging year for landlord borrowers and that a much higher interest rate environment presented the bulk of those challenges, particularly for those who were coming off deals and rates from two/three/five years’ back when we had historically low rates.

With the rise of the staycation, is this sun-drenched imagery still working? If research from Sykes Holiday Cottages is anything to go by, this gimmick now needs far more strings to its bow as holidays and breaks within our very own shores remain a highly attractive option for a strong proportion of the population.

We’ve seen a huge amount of news devoted to the additional financial pressure being placed on both homeowners and tenants across the UK.

We evaluate the trends which are impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are currently shaping up.

The first day of February saw the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) vote to hold the base rate at 5.25%, for a fourth consecutive time.

With the goal posts changing towards the back end of 2023, this leads to the question - how have landlords responded to this EPC U-turn?

Forecasting the year ahead in the mortgage market is not an envious task. As we know from recent years, there are always likely to be some significant events and market movements which often mean there is no such thing as a ‘business as usual’ year on which to predicate such forecasts.

Despite 2023 having some clear challenges for the advisory and lending community and our clients, 2024 has the potential to provide a far greater number of opportunities and a return to a market where activity levels have improved and so has income generation.

The fact that 2023 saw a record number of buy-to-let companies being set up is likely to come as no surprise to intermediary firms who have had any landlord interaction over the past few years

An interesting shift has also been noted in the market with the latest analysis from Zoopla outlining that buyers are securing huge discounts off the asking price as the number of homes for sale reaches a six-year high.

As we reach the end of the year, there appear to be a number of positive trends emerging in and around the buy-to-let market and private rental sector (PRS). Trends which certainly bode well for the next 12 months and hopefully beyond.

The dynamics of the buy-to-let sector continue to change in line with economic influences, market forces, not to mention landlord and tenant demands. 

There is often precious little time to take a step back and process events which took place over any given period of time, especially in terms of how these events may have impacted your customer base, their behaviours and future outlooks.

In recent weeks we’ve seen some important changes to the proposed introduction of increased Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards for rental properties.

One of the most discussed areas within the current BTL market is the ongoing value attached to HMO’s, the yields being generated, and the costs attached to these.

The UK remains obsessed with the property market. Be this in the form of house prices, rents, the costs associated with borrowing and the margins for landlords. And while yields remain strong, there’s an ever-changing array of additional costs which landlords have to carefully account for.

The economic climate demands competitive, flexible and responsible products for first-time buyers and movers – but what if they don’t fit mainstream?

Time stops for no one, and neither does the possibility of change. What might seem like an irrecoverable position always has the potential to shift and develop, and for a more positive outcome to be achieved. There will be many borrowers who currently feel like this and require the services of an adviser to help move them to where they need to be.

The future can be quite uncertain in terms of Government intervention on moving the minimum EPC level within the private rental sector to C, from either 2025 for new tenancies or 2028 for existing ones.

When it comes to millions of mortgage borrowers, the notion of a ‘one size fits all’ product offering suitable for their wants and needs, well quite frankly, doesn’t fit at all.

As we enter the Autumn season following an unexpected early September heatwave, it's a crucial period for the BTL sector, which has faced a fair share of heat from various angles, including the market, economic factors, and interest rates.

We see a wide range of customers, from self-employed clients needing to use their latest year’s figures, through to first time buyers (FTB) who may simply have a thin credit file.

Even in - what looks like - an economy where inflation is heading downwards, the overall pressure on household incomes shows no signs of abating just yet.

New data displays the challenging realities facing borrowers, especially for the self-employed. However, Foundation can provide a path to homeownership for these individuals, outside of the mainstream.

The popularity of owning buy-to-let properties though a limited company structure is evident and they have become increasingly prominent from both a tax efficiency perspective and in terms of lower levels of stress testing by many lenders.

With relatively low levels of activity currently being experienced across the residential housing market, more and more attention is being focused on the buy-to-let sector.

In our Q2 BTL barometer, brought to you in conjunction with the latest BVA BDRC Landlord Panel research, we evaluate the trends which are impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are currently shaping up.

The ongoing impact of tax, policy and regulatory changes are encouraging a greater number of landlords to explore tax efficient methods, alternative property types and limited company structures

Will landlords make the required improvements to meet EPC standards? 25% say they would not carry out any works and either sell the property or not re-let it.

Given the significant economic upheaval witnessed in recent times, many landlords throughout the UK have undertaken a thorough review of their financial standing, the efficacy of their property portfolios, and, in certain instances, reconsidered their short-term, medium-term, and long-term buy to let objectives.

It remains an ‘interesting’ time for the UK residential sector. According to the latest figures from the Bank of England the new interest rate ‘norm’ – that’s the average interest rate paid on newly drawn mortgages - continued to increase, rising by a further 7 basis points to 4.63% in June.

Before the pandemic, one might have had a few misconceptions defining what a ‘Key Worker’ was, and the work they carried out within the UK. We have come to understand the vital role they play at the heart of our most-trusted and valued services.

At Foundation, when it comes to your client’s specialist residential cases, we have the expertise in managing those that might need extra consideration. 

With Foundation Home Loans - Check out these first 4 ways 

It’s fair to say that our working lives, the way get paid and the jobs we do is changing, recent research by Censuswide revealed that one in 10 UK employees which is approximately 4.5 million people were considering taking a second job or already have done

At Foundation, we understand that every client has different circumstances and we are dedicated to providing specialised mortgage services that are tailored to their specific situation.

These days - different borrowers have different needs - we are not in the mortgage market of the 1970s or 1980s, when each lender offered one rate and there was one 25-year term that you stuck to.

Taking a step back in time for a moment, throughout the mortgage market, the two-year fixed rate product largely reigned supreme.

When it comes to complex and specialist residential cases, finding the right fit can be challenging. 

For those individuals who, up until now, have only dreamed of extricating themselves from the rental market or indeed their parental home to get on the property ladder, there appears to be a growing amount of evidence to suggest the tide might be turning in their favour.

We have seen a growing band of near mainstream borrowers emerge who are more reliant than ever on the specialist lending market and an astute, professional advice process. This continues to generate strong levels of opportunity for advisers who maintain a robust handle on the ever-increasing breadth of lending propositions on offer.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that, in March 2023, self-employment jobs rose by 82,000. The total increase in total workforce jobs is said to be the largest on record… so how does this affect your mortgage advice?

There may have been a perception that ‘accidental’ or more ‘unintentional’ landlords make up a high proportion of the landlords’ community, our data reveals the truth

One of the most consistent property types in delivering the highest yields in recent years has been houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) - but is it still an attractive option?

The data reveals that two-thirds of landlords arranged their most recent BTL mortgage via a mortgage intermediary – discover who needs your help

Many lenders have been highly proactive and innovative in the way they have engaged with the intermediary and landlord communities around the potential benefits attached to green mortgages in recent times.

In our latest quarterly BTL barometer, brought to you in conjunction with the latest BVA BDRC Landlord Panel research, we evaluate the trends which are impacting your landlord clients and how their portfolios are shaping up on the back of some challenging economic conditions.

As an intermediary-only lender, we fully understand the importance of the advice process, and this has become increasingly apparent in a buy-to-let marketplace which got that little bit tougher for landlords and a little lighter when it comes to confidence levels of the back of well-documented events over the later part of Q3 and early Q4 2022.

We have always operated in a solutions-driven market. However, the current economic climate dictates that to better the service progressively complex borrowing needs, lenders are looking beyond a tick box criteria approach to generate a range of solutions which match these ever-shifting requirements.

While it’s clearly the case that HMOs, for example, can still be described as a ‘specialist property type’ it would be somewhat naïve for us to think this part of the rental sector isn’t becoming more popular with landlords, as they react to a number of issues not least the growing demand for such properties.

There has been a lot of speculation around EPC requirements for private rental sector (PRS) properties lately.

The Government’s Energy Efficiency Taskforce is charged with helping reduce energy consumption by 15% over the next seven years, cutting bills, and helping push down inflation.

The latest Money and Credit report showed that individuals borrowed an additional £1.6 billion in consumer credit in January, on net, following £0.8 billion of borrowing in December. This was suggested to be the highest net borrowing by individuals since June 2022 (£1.7 billion).

As a lender, over the past 12 to 18 months, we have taken steps to transform our underwriting approach by putting new systems and processes in place which enable us to say yes to more cases as opposed to a “computer says no approach”.

For landlords, many have gone back to basics in terms of delving deeper into their yield, void and cost calculations. When it comes to yield, houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) have historically topped these charts and proved an attractive option for the more hands-on landlords.

Our research with BDRC showed us the outlook of Landlords in each region. Find out what's happening in your region below. 

The private rented sector is playing an increasingly vital role in the wider UK housing market but its value continues to come under scrutiny from different angles.

In our regular quarterly BTL barometer, the Landlord Panel reveal their rent increase intentions and other trends being experienced in the PRS and their intermediary market.

From a tenant demand, yield and cost perspective, the appeal of certain property types is likely to further intensify

There is good news for mortgage advisers as a significant number of existing landlords – one-third – say they plan to remortgage over the next 12 months.

Are landlords planning to reject properties with poor EPCs? And what are their plans to cover the improvement costs? Our latest landlord panel reveals…

Costs are rising, and tenant demand holds strong – so where will landlords increase rents?

There’s no denying that landlords and their tenants are living in some challenging times. However, strong rental yields and diminishing void periods are contributing to profitability.

Around 40% of homes in the UK have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above already, but are your borrowers considering a Green mortgage when they remortgage or purchase?

How many current private rental sector (PRS) properties have an EPC rating of below C, are at threat of not being lettable after the 2025 or 2028 deadlines?

As portfolios professionalise, how many landlords plan to buy in an SPV/limited company this year? Our latest survey data revealed. 

We’ve steadily seen the massive impact climate change is having on our planet and what could happen if we ignore the warning of credible experts. The ‘Green’ issue is going to play a much bigger role in the mortgage and housing markets now.

Over two-thirds of landlords (68%) say they would now be less likely to purchase a property if it has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of below C – the level at which anticipated legislation is likely to be introduced for all new and existing private rental sector tenancies from 2025 onwards.

Rental yields and tenant demand are holding firm for landlords’ property investments, however profitability of portfolios was slightly down on the previous quarter, according to the latest Q4 2022 BVA BDRC Landlord Panel research report.

According to the 2022 Simply Business SME Insights Report, half of small businesses are planning to increase their prices to help get them through the rest of the year.

With the fresh new year, many landlords will be planning their remortgage and purchase finance for this interesting year now coming over the horizon.

Advisers and borrowers still have the chance to work together in other ways. 

Maintaining any kind of barometer across the mortgage market over the past few weeks has been neigh on impossible due to the high levels of volatility and turbulence experienced across all sectors.

We are excited today to announce that we have launched an expanded panel of solicitors for specialist property cases, including HMOs, large HMOs, and multi-unit properties.