Woolwich to push into buy-to-let

Although buy-to-let is a small proportion of Woolwich's lending at the moment David Finlay, intermediary director at Barclays, said he was aiming to build the lender's presence in the market significantly next year.

He said: "We're aiming to beef up our buy-to-let offering as the market offers good margin at an attractive level of risk.

"I can't confirm numbers but 10% of our book wouldn't seem unreasonable."

Yesterday it was revealed Santander had delayed its rumoured launch into the buy-to-let market until March.

Lending in the sector is dominated by The Mortgage Works and BM Solutions though brokers have been calling on the other major lenders to enter the fray.

RBS is also rumoured to be considering launching buy-to-let.