House prices fell by just over 1 per cent in 2011. According to Halifax, this is set to continue throughout the year.
Traditional lenders are still making it difficult for people to secure mortgages and are unwilling to start lendingagain in this economic climate.
This is driving the demand for rental properties, pushing up rental prices and making the current housing market a hotbed of opportunity for brokers to offer their services to those who want to begin or expand a portfolio.
Specialist products have many positive features and benefits that you wouldn’t get from the conventional sources of a big-name lender, opening up the market to a wider demographic.
This allows others to capitalise on the buy-to-let boom that perhaps wouldn’t have previously been able to do so.
For example, at Blemain Group, rental income from a tenant is classed as an income source, provided it’s more than the total monthly secured lending repayments. If not, other income types, even those who are self-employed, can count towards the repayment criteria.
Brokers should use these dynamic features in their offering and educate potential customers of the advantages that they can hold over a traditional mortgage.
If brokers do this, we can continue to enjoy the sustainable market that flexible products have brought to specialist lending.
