Time to link up with an agent

Whether a first time landlord or a professional landlord with multiple properties they should all be reviewing their protection needs

Paul Pearce is intermediary sales director at Let Alliance

At network adviser workshops and meetings that I have attended, so many have confirmed their residential mortgage business has increased significantly this year but they have been happy with the number of landlords looking to increase their buy-to-let portfolios.

This is no surprise as our letting agent customers are telling us that they are rushed off their feet!

So if you haven’t linked up with a letting agent, maybe now is the time to review your strategy for 2015 growth because advisers working with letting agents have a constant stream of landlords who require buy-to-let mortgage and protection advice.

Further to the October 2014 Buy to Let Index Report by LSL Property Services Ltd, David Newnes, director of estate agents Reeds Rains and Your Move, comments: “Rents have edged to a new record (average £770 per month) and the rental market is pulsing with new demand. Yet at the same time, tenants are getting on top of their finances – helped by a cooling pace of such rent rises.

Likewise the Q3, 2014 Market Report from the Connells Group (one of the largest estate agency service providers in the UK) confirms new rental property instructions were up 24% on Q3, 2013 and tenant demand has grown to 8 tenants per instruction.

As you can see, everything is looking rosy in the Buy to Let garden for this growth to continue, therefore the protection requirements of the landlords become more significant. Whether a first time landlord or a professional landlord with multiple properties they should all be reviewing their protection needs.