David Robinson, national intermediary sales manager at Accord, said: “We didn't grow massively but we increased our market share and there wouldn’t be many lenders who could say that they grew their buy-to-let lending last year.
Accord Mortgages has grown its buy-to-let proposition during 2017 and aims to continue this during 2018, despite the much-publicised changes hitting the sector.
David Robinson, national intermediary sales manager at Accord, said: “We didn't grow massively but we increased our market share and there wouldn’t be many lenders who could say that they grew their buy-to-let lending last year.
“We still want to continue to focus on buy-to-let even though it's a market that has its challenges.
“Residential lending is still the majority of our lending but buy-to-let lending is a significant part of what we do and we still see options in the buy-to-let market, more so than the residential market.
“I think the buy-to-let sector is more of an opportunity than a threat. We want to grow our buy-to-let lending more this year too, recognising the market is still going to be bleak and will perhaps reduce a bit further. But there are opportunities in the market such as remortgaging and portfolio landlords.
“Consumer buy-to-let and remortgages are two of our key areas going forward.”
In March Accord launched an end-to-end online product transfer process in time for the many product transfers he predicts in April in the sector.
Robinson added: “People can do a straight switch remortgage. It's going well so far. We're one of a number of lenders that offers a lower ICR for straight switch remortgaging and I think the whole remortgaging buy-to-let market will be a big market this year particularly during April and May with many customers coming to the end of their curent deals.
“This is because two years ago there was a spike in buy-to-let lending with people rushing for the deals before the buy-to-let changes came through, so now I think there will be quite a lot of remortgages and that straight switch remortgage facility will help.
“Our new online system is making the process quicker, easier and more efficient so it’s giving the broker more time to do other deals. By using this, a product transfer can be done in 24 to 48 hours from submitting to getting the offer out.”
