Buy-to-let deals 'down 93%'

The number of buy-to-let products on the market has dropped by 93% over the last year-and-a-half, a financial comparison website has said.

Moneyfacts.co.uk points out that now the Post Office has withdrawn its 85% loan-to-value (LTV) deal, there are no products available for buy-to-let landlords who have less than a 20% deposit on their mortgage.

Just a year ago, deals of between 85% and 90% made up 61.1% of the buy-to-let (BTL) market.

And the number of 20% LTV products has also fallen dramatically, now making up just 5.7% of the market compared to 16.3% a year earlier.

Michelle Slade, analyst at moneyfacts.co.uk, said: "Falling house prices have caused the equity in many landlords' portfolios to reduce, but with no deals available for less than a 20% deposit, many have no option but to move onto the lender's standard variable rate (SVR) at the end of their existing deal."

Slade said that despite a 4% drop in the Bank rate since last year, many lenders have not passed on cuts to landlords.

Kevin Friend of mortgages.co.uk told More Than Business News: "Generally we have seen BTL brokers struggle month-on-month since March as rates and lack of products prohibited lending."

However, he added that while the BTL market may have suffered from a lenders' perspective, "from a landlords' [perspective] there is arguably increased demand and improved yields as people are unable to qualify or afford the deposit required to purchase".