FSE London: Resilience present in BTL market

As part of a panel discussion at FSE London 2017.

FSE London: Resilience present in BTL market

There is a resilience present in the current buy-to-let market according to Adrian Moloney, sales director at One Savings Bank at a panel discussion during this years' Financial Services Expo in London.

With a more specialist marketplace as suggested by Richard Tugwell, an uptick in limited companies and a more pronounced split between amateur and professional landlords is creating a more resilient marketplace say industry experts.

David Whittaker, chief operating officer at Mortgages for Business, predicts the final figure for the market will reach around £33bn, with limited companies making up three quarters of purchases.

Ahead of the PRA changes in the BTL market, Liz Syms, chief executive at Connect for Intermediaries, claims that professional landlords will stay one step ahead of how to prepare for the changes as this is their "business".

Moloney furthered by saying that this "reliant" marketplace is not longer suitable for a one size fits all approach due to it becoming a more diversified sector.

Looking forward, the industry experts agreed that technology will play a greater part in order to make the changes caused by regulation swifter and easier, with Maloney saying One Savings Bank have been "working with technology to create a swifter change".

Asked what one thing the experts would change in the market if they could choose, the responses varied from a riddance of the "pernicious" 20% tax limitation from David Whittaker to more funding into technological solutions from Liz Syms.

Liz Syms also had some words of advice for the upcoming changes - to be mindful of the small criteria as some lenders are "interpreting PRA changes differently".