Landbay rejects price war with high-street rivals
LANDBAY has said it is not planning to lower its borrower rates, despite a number of its high-street rivals slashing their buy-to-let mortgage rates over the past week.
The peer-to-peer platform, which focuses on buy-to-let mortgage loans, told Peer-to-Peer Finance News that “we don’t foresee any material change to our average borrower rates”.
TMW and Accord, which is part of the Yorkshire Building Society, have both cut their fixed rate deals recently, while Keystone is set to cut its rates later this week.
“Landbay focuses its lending predominantly on experienced, ‘professional’ landlords and as such we don’t really play a part in the high street buy-to-let lending market,” said Paul Clampin, chief lending officer at Landbay.
“Borrowers tend to come to us not for rates, but for acceptable criteria that fits their requirements, driving a faster decision in principle and a rational commercial approach to lending.”
The government has been trying to crack down on the buy-to-let sector due to fears of overheating in the housing market. From January, the maximum level of tax relief that landlords can claim against their mortgage interest payments will fall over three years from 45 per cent to 20 per cent.
“The upcoming tax relief changes will be phased in over four years so the effect will neither be immediate nor surprising for landlords,” said Clampin. “Secondly, an increasing number of Landbay’s borrowers hold their properties in limited companies and as such are exempt from these changes.”