Online portal Landbay’s upbeat assessment of UK buy-to-let property

By Robin Amlot

Landbay, a UK-based lending platform for prime residential buy-to-let mortgages, with funds originating from institutional investors, has just entered into a partnership with Primis Mortgage Network. The deal comes against the backdrop of a second spike in the Coronavirus pandemic in the UK. Commenting on the current outlook for the UK property market, John Goodall, CEO of Landbay, said: “The buy-to-let market has held up remarkably well through the pandemic and demand for rental property remains strong.

“While a number of buy-to-let lenders did pull out of the market for a few months due to funding restrictions, Landbay kept lending throughout.  Many lenders with older systems struggled to adapt to staff working from home, compounded by the surge in calls from borrowers following the Chancellor’s payment holiday announcement. For Landbay however, this was where being on a modern, technically-advanced platform really paid off as all our staff could work efficiently from home within 24 hours of the lockdown announcement and we could carry on processing loans as well as we could in the office.  Of course, it is not the same on a personal level and some of our teams have missed the face-to-face interaction but technologically there was little change and we could stay within our service level agreements throughout.”

Most buy-to-let lenders in the UK are funded by institutional funds or banks and diversity of funding appears to have paid off.  “Overall funders’ confidence in buy-to-let has held up really well, with some reporting that the UK buy-to-let market is one of its safest asset classes.  There have also been a number of securitisations, one of which included Landbay loans. The biggest impact over the lockdown period were funding rules that require a physical valuation of a property. This meant that lending was inhibited until valuers could once again visit properties, but the market has bounced back strongly since the lockdown eased,” said Goodall.

“Overall, there is a little more caution in the buy-to-let market but on the whole it is faring well. Maximum LTVs are a little lower at 75% as opposed to 80% before the pandemic, but this is sensible in a changing world.

“The need for excellent, adaptable technology in buy-to-let and across all lending sectors, is only going to grow going forwards.  It is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but an essential part of running a modern lender. Data quality is critical to auditing and underwriting risk mitigation.  On the other side, investors and funders rightfully expect to see how their funds are performing at any given time. They have investment goals and risk assessments they need to meet across their portfolios and so look to Landbay to provide them with these decision insights and to do so quickly.  The Landbay platform leverages data to match the goals of our funders providing them with real-time insights into their portfolios. As a result, investors can fund loans to their desired timelines and outcomes, while borrowers and intermediaries know they can come to Landbay for competitive buy-to-let loans, even through the most tumultuous of times.”