BTL Mortgages – Best Deals

There is no doubt the buy-to-let mortgage market has been decimated over the last 18 months. Many of the large buy-to-let lenders have been nationalised such as Mortgage Express or Northern Rock. Other lenders have priced themselves out of the market or effectively withdrawn such as the likes of Paragon & GMAC

The result is that the range of lenders has shrunk from many hundreds to less than a hundred and the number of products has come down even more dramatically. At the height of the boom there were over 8,000 buy-to-let mortgage products, today, less than a thousand.

Property Hawk has revisited the buy-to-let mortgage market place to find out what the latest situation is and some of the best deals currently available.

The reduction in the Base Rate to a historic low level has seen the large scale disappearance of interest related buy-to-let mortgage products.

VARIABLE RATES

It is however, possible to obtain a variable rate at less than 5%.

Some of the best rates are through Cheltenham and Gloucester and Lloyds which both offer a variable rate of 4.89% until 1/06/12 with a LTV of 75%. The application fee is high though at £1875. For those landlords looking for a lower fees and have a green slant to their investment then they could try the Ecology BS. The fee is only £350 and they offer up to 80% LTV on their 4.9% variable rate. For landlords that want to avoid paying any application fee the Stafford Railway BS offers a 5% fee free variable product; the downside is that the LTV is only 50%.

FEE FREE PRODUCTS

Many landlords hate the idea of paying expensive application fees. After all what do you get for those hundreds / thousands of pounds. There are a few buy-to-let lenders that offer fee free buy-to-let mortgage products. Valuation, legal and other fees may apply:

Holmesdale BS, Stafford Railway BS, Northern Rock, The Mortgage Works

It is still also possible to get a buy-to-let remortgage with free legal fees and a free valuation through our very own Post Office. They are currently offering a 6.49% fixed rate with a maximum LTV of 75%

FIXED RATES

Given the current historic low interest rate environment it’s not surprising that most of the action in the diminished UK buy-to-let market is concentrated in the fixed rate part of the market.

It is possible to get a 2 or 3 fixed rates on a buy-to-let mortgage of below 5%.
The Mortgage Works is killing the opposition with a large range of fixed rate deals. They can do this because being part of Nationwide they are owned by one of the few financial organisations that aren’t bust. The lowest rate they offer is an earth shattering 3.49%. The arrangement fee is a very high at 3.5% and the maximum LTV is only 70%. They do offer a range of fixed rate deals for more details

Cheltenham and Gloucester is doing the best 75% LTV deal with a 5.29% fixed deal, the application fee is £1250 and the rate is fixed until 30/06/11.

The Mortgage Works also offer a no fee product fixed at 5.84% and fixed until 31/03/12 but unfortunately it comes with a maximum LTV of 60%.

LONG TERM FIXED RATE

As we have recently discussed buy-to-let mortgage rates will not stay low forever.
Therefore with 5 year fixed rates at less than 6% landlords that want certainty might want to take a look. The best currently on offer is through Cheltenham and Gloucester at 5.59% fixed until 30/06/14. This mortgage has an application fee of £1250 and a max LTV of 60%.

The best low fee alternative is the Post Office which offers a 6.49% fix until 30/03/12 or 2014 with an application fee of £599 and a LTV of 75%.