500 mortgage intermediaries were surveyed by the lender with 58% confirming they had seen an increase in buy-to-let business in the last three months. Only 1 in 20 revealed that they had seen a drop and over a quarter (27%) said that it had remained static.
Looking forward to the next six months, it appears that the market still has room to grow with over half (54%) expecting to do more buy-to-let business than the last six months, with only 4% expecting to do less. A third (32%) are forecasting that their buy-to-let business will remain stable.
Turning to new build, well over half (57%) of brokers were optimistic about the prospects for the sector this year. Around a quarter (25%) were pessimistic with 1 in 6 (17%) saying they were unsure.
Of those that said they had a new build development in their area, the majority (57%) believe they will write more business this year compared to last year. A fifth (21%) said they weren’t sure whilst 16% thought they would do less. A third (32%) of all brokers in the survey said they didn’t have any new build developments in their area.
Graham Felstead, Head of NatWest Intermediary Solutions said: “The buy-to-let and new build sectors have both been touted as growth areas for 2015 and this sentiment has been echoed by the optimism shown by brokers in our survey. We have an appetite to grow our presence in both of these areas of the mortgage market, and have recently refreshed our New Build proposition to offer a more attractive approach to builder’s incentives.
The buy-to-let market is one where we have made great strides in the last couple of years. We have focused specifically on non-professional landlords with small portfolios – an area of the market where there has been significant growth and one that is expected to continue to be buoyant as more people turn to property as a viable investment alternative to traditional pension arrangements.”
