Yorkshire Building Society enters buy-to-let market
Investors in London buy-to-let properties now have another option when it comes to finding a mortgage with Yorkshire Building Society announcing it is entering the market.
The lender is to begin offering buy-to-let mortgages for the first time, initially providing two products through its intermediary lending arm Accord Mortgages.
To begin with, the products will only be available to those buying properties to rent in London and the South East, but will be rolled out to more of its lending partners and to other areas after an initial trial period.
Available will be apair of two-year fixed-rate buy-to-let mortgages, at rates of 4.29 per cent and 4.59 per cent at a loan-to-value of up to 65 and 75 per cent respectively. Both come with a fee of £995.
Yorkshire already has a buy-to-let portfolio, inherited via its recent takeover of Chelsea Building Society, but this is the first time it has launched its own products.
"As a financially strong independent mutual, our primary focus is, and always will be, the interests of our members. We will approach buy-to-let mortgages as we would with any other home loan, as a responsible and prudent lender," said Yorkshire's head of buy-to-let Jeremy Law.
Commenting on the news, Ying Tan, managing director of the Buy To Let Business, welcomed the competition, saying it would benefit the market.
"We've been waiting for this day and it's great for competition. The products are very good, with an excellent arrangement fee, but the challenge will be the strict criteria. Yet, it is a perfect product for the right person looking at a vanilla property," he told mortgagesolutions.co.uk.
It follows recent figures that suggest the buy-to-let mortgage market is becoming increasingly active as surging tenant demand leads to a rise in property investors.
The data from Moneyfacts revealed that there are now 505 different buy-to-let mortgage products on the market - the highest level since September 2008.
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