Is it Buy-and-Hold season? Transaction volume growth falls as Buy-to-Let investors seek to remortgage

Transaction volumes are down across the UK, but what does this mean for the buy-to-let mortgage market? Today we have released our latest quarterly LendInvest Buy-to-Let Index, revealing an interesting trend for investors in this space.

Take a look at our key findings for July 2018 below:

• Luton (#1) reclaims top spot for the third time since December 2016
• Birmingham (#4) holds firm ahead of Manchester (#5) as the Midlands town presents key investment opportunity
• Regional capitals Cambridge and Bristol break into the Top 10 (#6 and #8)
• Inner London postcodes bounce back one year on; South East London jumps from #79 (June 2017) to #33 (July 2018)

This month our special feature is a deep dive into the reasons transaction volume growth has slowed by -6.77% on average across the UK. Here we compare our current LendInvest BTL Index Top 10 with last quarter’s data, showing a steep drop in transaction volume growth.

Ian Boden, Sales Director at LendInvest, said: “It’d be so easy to look at the underlying data that tells us transaction volumes are down and make dire predictions about the health and wealth of the rental market. Instead, what our Index proves once again is that looking at one metric in the housing market is never enough. One metric on its own can’t clearly define the performance of a city’s property market.

“Each of the very top performing BTL locations this quarter is experiencing a slowdown in transactions – substantial falls in places, dips in others. The best places this quarter continue to outperform the competition,  thanks to strong performances on other, equally important metrics like rental yield, capital gains and rental price growth.

“Data from the BTL Index, UK Finance and our own experience as a mortgage lender strongly suggests that right now a ‘buy, hold and remortgage’ strategy is some investors’ preference while the market works through a possible slowdown.”

Access the full LendInvest BTL Index Report for July 2018 here.