Buy-To-Let Lending Falls As Tougher Rules Bite

The first signs that the buy-to-let boom could be coming to an end have emerged in figures from the Nationwide building society, which showed that lending to landlords went into the reverse over the past six months. Nationwide’s buy-to-let subsidiary, the Mortgage Works, lent £2.8bn in the six months to September 2016, down from £2.9bn in the same period a year earlier. The lender cited new affordability tests brought in ahead of changes to tax relief from April next year, which have made it more difficult for potential landlords to snap up properties. Read more on the Guardian website.

Nationwide Allows Landlords to Offer Longer-Term Tenancies

The Nationwide Building Society Group is the first mainstream buy-to-let-lender to allow landlords to offer their tenants longer-term contracts.  Most lenders restrict buy-to-let borrowers by requiring them to offer their tenants a maximum contract of 12 months. By allowing customers the choice to offer longer-term lets, The Mortgage Works, part of Nationwide, hopes to give more stability to some of the nine million people in England who rent their homes privately.  Read more on the Shelter website.