Buy-to-let benefits from optimism boost

More than a third (39%) of landlords who took part in the lender’s Q3 Private Rented Trends survey said that they were feeling more optimistic about the prospects for their rental portfolios.

This is an increase on the first and second quarters (30%).

Just 4% of those surveyed said that they were feeling pessimistic about the prospects for their property investments compared with three months ago, and for 56% there had been no change.

There was some difference in sentiment between professional landlords and private investor landlords – those with between one and five properties. Professional landlords with more substantial property portfolios were more likely to be feeling more optimistic, 41% compared with 32% of private investor landlords.

John Heron, Director of Mortgages, said:

“This is the highest level of optimism we have seen in the last three years, which is in line with the improvements that we have seen elsewhere in the housing market.

“The CML published data last month which showed that there was £5.1 billion of buy-to-let advances in the second quarter. Recently there has been speculation about a possible boom in the buy-to-let market, but we are a long way off reaching lending levels of anywhere near those of 2007. So I think concerns about a booming market are overdone. What we are seeing is more progress in a recovering housing market in general.”