BTL adds to UK property price growth
Some would say that the UK property boom is now bigger than that of the US in 2007 and we all know what happened there, the bubble burst. Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England reiterated his concerns about the growth of the Buy-to-Let (BTL) mortgage when speaking to a panel of MP’s on tuesday.
According to the Evening Standard he was quoted as saying: “We think developments in the buy-to-let market have warranted heightened scrutiny and have done so for some time.
“As a general rule, any time you see a very sharp and sustained increase in activity in one area … it at least bears heightened scrutiny.
“Every BTL mortgage reduces the supply of new homes for sale to regular mortgage applicants, because by definition every BTL holder doesn’t want to actually live in the house they’re buying. So BTL jacks up prices by reducing supply, and concentrates ownership in the hands of those most vulnerable to credit shocks”.