The survey asked 200 brokers whether they think now is a good time to invest in buy-to-let, with 95% answering yes.
When asked, on a scale of 1 to 4, how confident they were that the buy-to-let market will grow over the next 12 months, 29% said they were extremely confident, 62% said they were relatively confident and 9% said they felt neutral about the market. Not one broker said they were not confident.
Brokers were also asked how easy they were finding it to place buy-to-let business taking into consideration the complexity of lenders criteria. While just 5% said it was extremely easy, almost 50% (48%) said it was relatively easy. 23% said it was neither easy nor hard, 20% found it relatively hard and just 4% said it was extremely hard.
Finally a question asking what, on average, clients are most interested in produced some enlightening results. 50% of the brokers surveyed said low rates and 45% said flat fees. Just 2.5% said clients were most interested in freebies and the same small number said fast turnaround times. Not one broker said their clients were interested in cash backs.
Managing director Ying Tan says:
“It’s great to see confidence is high amongst brokers. Despite the challenging environment the broker community has faced over the last four to five years, our resilience is paying off and there is a strong feeling of sustainable growth.
“It’s interesting to see what investors value in a mortgage. Many may have expected more brokers to say fast turnaround fees are important to clients but perhaps this shows an understanding on the part of brokers and investors that the underwriting process now takes longer.
“Overall this survey shows bricks and mortar is still the preferred investment vehicle and with funding becoming more readily available and lenders loosening criteria that looks unlikely to change any time soon.”
