This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The most recent report from Mortgages for Business shows that buy-to-let fixed rates increased in April, for two, three and five-year terms.
In fact, only five-year fixed rates failed to return to their February averages, staying just 0.01% lower at 3.76%.
This is the first month since January that any rises have been seen in rates, for both fixed and variable products.
Falls
Three-year fixed rate terms have consistently fallen for a longer period- between April 2016 and March 2017. In this period, the typical three-year fixed rate slipped from 4.50% to 3.53%, with a new record low seen in every month from June.
Despite April bringing an increase in fixed rates, particularly for shorter terms, no visible pattern emerged among variable rate products. Five and two-year tracker rates rose by 0.02% and 0.12% respectively, but others fell.
Buy-to-let rates beginning to rise
Three-year variable rates fell by 0.02%, but term product rates slipped by 0.11%.
Steve Olejnik, COO of Mortgages for Business, commented: ‘For some time now buy-to-let mortgage lenders have been cutting rates to maintain lending volume in a sector that has been actively targeted by both the taxman and the regulator. Rates can only fall so far, however, and figures from April suggest we may have reached the limit.’[1]
[1] http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/btl-rates-are-starting-to-rise.html
