First-time buyers build up housing demand - The Times (subscription)

First-time buyers build up housing demand – The Times (subscription)

The average two-year fixed rate buy-to-let mortgage rate fell to 2.76 per cent in February – lower than the 2.82 per cent recorded in January.

The latest figures from the Bank of England show February’s average is also the lowest rate seen in the past year – and the lowest rate since January 2012 when the Bank began recording rates.

In February 2016, the average two-year fixed rate buy-to-let deal cost 3.29 per cent.

The fall in mortgage rates offers some respite to landlords, who are about to see changes to mortgage interest tax relief eat into their profits, as after April it will begin to step down from full relief on income tax to a maximum of 20 per cent.

Key Takeaways:

The council of Mortgage Lenders in the UK reported a .7 percent rise in gross mortgage lending, compared to the same period of time last year, in February.
However, the numbers, which reached 18.2 billion, were significantly less than the 19.8 billion reached by last January.
As February is historically a weaker sales month than January, the deviance is not especially unusual.

“The council, whose members undertake 97 per cent of all residential mortgage lending in the UK”