Yorkshire Building Society has moved into the buy-to-let mortgage market via its intermediary lending arm, Accord Mortgages.

The mutual has said however that Accord’s primary focus will remain on prime residential lending.

Products will be available through selected lending partners, initially for properties in London and the South East of England, with plans to broaden the geographical availability later in the year.

It will include a brief trial period through two lending partners before the products are rolled out to the rest of the Yorkshire’s selected distribution panel.

The Yorkshire says the staged entry will allow it to test systems with relatively low volumes of business “ensuring a good service to broker partners is maintained””.