Friday, 9 August 2013

Buy-To-Let Fuels House Price Boom

Britain's buy-to-let mortgage market has surged to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crash, prompting fears that a prolonged period of cheap money is setting off an unsustainable housing boom.  Lending to landlords topped £5bn in the past three months, a period that preceded the Bank of England's pledge this week to keep interest rates low for the next three years. More than one in 10 mortgages are now being handed to a would-be landlord while first-time buyers are still struggling to get on the housing ladder. About 40,000 buy-to-let mortgages were advanced in the three months to June, up from 33,000 in the first quarter of the year, as landlords cashed in on cheap mortgage deals and investors sought higher returns than they could get from putting their cash in the bank.  Read more on the Guardian website.

No comments: