Building society expands buy-to-let lending

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24th January 2012

Building society expands buy-to-let lending

More landlords will now be able to take advantage of mortgages from Yorkshire Building Society after the lender announced it is to expand its offerings for those investing in buy-to-let properties.

The Yorkshire entered the buy-to-let market for the first time in August 2011, but initially mortgages were only available for those who wanted to buy-to-let in London or the South East.

But now the building society has opened up its buy-to-let mortgage range to suitable properties across England and Wales as part of a planned staggered entry into the market place.

"We have always been open about our intentions to roll-out our buy-to-let offering to a wider geographical area and the expansion across England and Wales will represent the next step in our staged entry into buy-to-let," said Yorkshire's head of buy-to-let Jeremy Law.

The building society is also loosening its lending criteria for landlords, helping a greater number to access finance for property purchases.

Yorkshire has lowered the minimum property value needed for a mortgage from £150,000 to £100,000, reduced the minimum applicant age from 30 to 25-years-old and lifted a 40 mile distance from borrower to property location restriction.

It will now also accept broker-certified copies of documentation for an application instead of original papers and has lowered the minimum income for an applicant from £35,000 to £20,000.

"We have listened to brokers and taken the opportunity our staged entry has provided to revise our lending criteria," said Mr Law.

"However, our lending policy will still reflect the values of the Yorkshire as a prudent mutual and our primary focus is, and always will be, the interests of our members."

It follows a recent survey by lender Paragon, more than half of mortgage intermediaries (53 per cent) expect to do more buy-to-let business in 2012 than they did last year, with just three percent predicting a fall.