The latest Buy to Let Costs Index from Mortgages for Business has found that in the first quarter of the year there was an average of 839 buy-to-let mortgage products from 31 active lenders on the market, up 21 products on the previous quarter.
This quarter has seen the launch of Foundation Home Loans and State Bank of India and products from these two lenders account for all of the increase in product numbers in the quarter, the firm said.
Mortgages for Business said that in Q1 2015 tracker products generally drifted higher in price (except at high LTV) whereas fixed rate products have remained at much the same price (again excepting high LTV which has also drifted down).
Two-year fixed rate mortgages are now around 0.5 percentage points cheaper than trackers (more at low LTV – less at high LTV) and both three and five-year fixed rate mortgages are similarly priced to trackers.
Meanwhile, the spread in cost between low LTV mortgages and high LTV mortgages has stabilised at around 1.5% – 2 % compared with around 1% in early 2013.
