Saffron Weldon Landlords – How Is your Rental Property Portfolio?

At Intercounty, we are delighted to work closely with so many landlords in and around Saffron Walden. We know many landlords have more than one rental property. If you have a rental property portfolio, you might be considering what is best for you as we move forward.

There is still a high level of demand for rental property right now, but a recent study suggests many landlords are looking for ways to enjoy the equity from their rental property.

According to a study carried out by Foundation Home Loans, many landlords might look to release equity from their portfolios:

• 30% of all landlords represented in the study plan to re-mortgage their rental property within the next 12 months to release equity

• 43% of buy-to-let (BTL) landlords want to re-mortgage in the next 12 months

• 20% of “consumer” landlords intend to re-mortgage their property in the next 12 months

• 46% of portfolio landlords said they felt good or very good about their business prospects

• 35% of single property landlords said they felt good or very good about their business prospects

• When landlords had at least 20 properties in their portfolio, 50% felt good or very good

How much is your rental property portfolio worth?

• In the second quarter of 2021, the typical landlord portfolio was worth in the region of £1.25m

• The average portfolio generated an annual gross rental income of £54,000

• Based on a portfolio of 6.9 properties, the estimated individual value of a property was £182,609

• For the first time since the third quarter of 2020, portfolio landlords with at least five mortgage properties had average property portfolios of more than £2m

• The current average loan-to-value (LTV) of a rental property portfolio of any size stands at 49.5%

• 40% of all properties owned in the standard portfolio were owned outright by a landlord, which provides the platform for landlords and investors to capitalise on their equity levels

Are you looking to make changes to your property portfolio?

George Gee is a commercial director at Foundation Home Loans, and he said; “We’ve seen the buy-to-let market moving steadily towards a greater level of professionalism for some years now, and this has meant a growing number of landlords are now defined as ‘portfolio’ operators and have long-term plans which involve making the most out of their properties. The research shows a number of key portfolio landlord intentions, particularly around extracting equity from their properties. Over the past year, in many areas of the country, we’ve seen double-digit house price growth, and even without access to the stamp duty holiday, the intention to remortgage to take out that increased value to purchase more has grown.”

George Gee continued by saying; “It means advisers are likely to see a growing spike in buy-to-let remortgage advice demand, and the positive news is there are very competitive product options for all types of portfolio landlords at present. At Foundation we’ve focused recently on improving our offering to portfolio landlords, not just in terms of price, but also in terms of helping them cut back on upfront costs such as fees and looking at ways we can make the process to a mortgage as seamless as possible.”

George Gee concluded by saying; “Portfolio landlords are likely to grow in number in the months and years ahead, and as specialist lenders in this space, we will continue to develop the product options and flexible criteria to help them get the most out of their existing properties to expand their letting footprint.”

For all lettings enquiries in Saffron Walden, please feel free to call us on 01799 513224 or why not email us at swlettings@intercounty.co.uk. With considerable experience in the local letting market, and free valuation services, we look forward to helping you make an informed decision in the Saffron Walden rental sector.