BTL Mortgage Guidelines – New Criteria
The buy to let market has seen many changes over the last couple of years, with new tax rules, and increased stamp duty tax to name just a few. Currently mortgage lenders are coming up with new underwriting guidelines that will come into effect in September 2017 and this will affect how a landlords mortgage applications are reviewed. Although the new rules from September haven’t been finalised it has been indicated that affordability is the main area of concern.
There are concerns that landlords who have numerous properties would have affordability issues should a number of their properties become vacant. At the moment it appears that going forward a lender will assess not just the property in question but the entire portfolio and affordability will be looked at against total debt and not just the mortgage you are trying to obtain. This could affect many landlords when trying to refinance their portfolio.
If you are considering purchasing further buy to let properties or are perhaps thinking about raising funds from your existing portfolio, now is the time to look at it.
Written by Ian Mclaughlin ian@kavproperty.co.uk