Lending for buy-to-let rises by 18% | Agent Media

Buy-to-let lending has increased by nearly a fifth in the space of a year amid strong growth in the rental sector, figures have shown.
Some 33,200 loans worth £3.9 billion were advanced between April and June this year, an 18% increase on the amount of cash advanced compared with the same period last year, said the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
Rents have soared in recent months as would-be buyers have remained trapped in the rental sector because they cannot raise a deposit or meet lenders’ toughening criteria. Suggestions have also been made that many people are choosing to rent because of uncertainty surrounding the housing market.

However, the CML cautioned that buy-to-let lending is still recovering from a low point in 2009 and lending volumes remain at about a third of their peak in 2007.

CML director general Paul Smee said: “Buy-to-let is continuing to show signs of recovery and growing broadly in line with expectations. The rental sector has grown strongly over the last decade or so and buy-to-let continues to help deliver a wider choice for tenants.”
A recent study by LSL Property Services, which owns chains Your Move and Reeds, found that average rents increased by 0.9% month-on-month in June to reach £718 a month, the third month in a row to experience a rise.
Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics, said buy-to-let lending is a “key prop” for the sluggish mortgage lending sector as a whole.Lending for buy-to-let rises by 18% | Agent Media