Buy to let sales on the increase
Buy to let (BTL) is now very much an accepted part of the housing market and is currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first official BTL mortgage.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, there are now 767,000 outstanding residential BTL mortgages in the UK, worth a total of £83.9 billion.1
To coincide with this, we can confirm there has been a 57% increase in the number of our Landlords Buildings & Contents (B&C) policies taken out over the last 12 months. The increase in Landlords B&C policies sold over the last year reflects the growth of BTL, in addition to highlighting that more landlords are taking action to protect their property and rental income against unforeseen events. Landlords B&C not only covers fire, flooding and theft but it also pays towards landlords' rental income should the property become uninhabitable as a result of an insurable event.
Since we launched our Landlords B&C policy in 2001 there has been a substantial increase in policies. Despite a slight decrease in the number of policies sold in 2005, which could have been caused by the introduction of regulation from the Financial Services Authority, Landlords is now on the increase with a significant rise over the last 12 months.
The increase over the last year may have a direct link to the addition of Landlords to our Inertia software. It is encouraging to see that more and more landlords are taking steps to insure their property investment. Landlords B&C is beneficial as it provides peace of mind by covering most landlords' worst case scenarios. The BTL market has experienced a significant expansion ever since it was first created in 1996 and there are still no signs of a market slowdown. While our figures show that landlords are taking action to insure their BTL property, we are asking intermediaries to make sure they fully inform their customers about the importance of Landlords B&C cover.
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