The Intermediary – October 2026 - Flipbook - Page 36
BUY-TO-LET
Opinion
The wrong half
of the refinance
conversation
A
landlord coming off
a 5-year fix in 2021
usually wanted to
know one thing:
what’s the rate?
I’m hearing
something different now: Should
I keep this property at all? What
happens to the numbers if I move it
into a company? Can I release enough
to fund the Energy Performance
Certificate (EPC) work on the other
two? My accountant says something
will change in 2027, is that right?
The accountant is right: property
income tax rates rise by two
percentage points in April 2027
(Finance Act 2026).
As Hamptons’ analysis suggests, the
peak of portfolio incorporation has
passed, leaving only marginal cases
weighing up their options. Ultimately,
none of this is about rates – it all lands
on a broker’s desk at maturity.
Maturity is where the market lives
now. Buy-to-let (BTL) refinancing
recently hit a record high, with 57%
of leveraged landlords arranging a
new loan, remortgage or product
transfer in the 12 months to June, up
10 percentage points on the previous
quarter and against 39% two years ago.
Remortgages and product transfers
made up around eight in 10 recent
transactions; new purchases just 8%.
UK Finance had BTL remortgages up
11.1% year-on-year in Q1 to 39,160,
while purchase lending fell 14.9%.
The Mortgage Works found 43% of
landlords planning to sell a property
in the next 12 months, against 6%
planning to buy.
Maturity discussions are geing
harder just as volume hits an alltime high.
That directly squeezes the one thing
advice relies on most: an adviser’s
time. Which is why I think the
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The Intermediary | October 2026
mechanics maer more than they’re
given credit for.
If a case still needs a full reunderwrite, a fresh valuation and
paperwork the lender already holds
from five years of on-time payments,
that’s time spent proving the file is fine
rather than time spent on whether
the client should be holding the asset
at all. Every hour lost to process is an
hour not spent on the decision that’s
actually difficult.
Fixing the plumbing
That’s the bit lenders can fix, and it’s
largely a plumbing problem rather
than a policy one. Where the loan’s
performance is good, and nothing
material has changed, there’s no good
reason to put a client through the same
underwriting a new case would need.
An automated valuation (AVM)
should be the default on a standard
property, not something a broker has
to request. Also, the process should
run to the client’s timetable, not the
lender’s. At LendInvest, we start the
TOM MEIKLE
is retention manager
at LendInvest
product transfer process up to three
months before maturity so the rate
decision doesn’t get made under
pressure during the last weeks.
None of that replaces the broker.
It’s meant to buy the broker room. A
landlord facing a genuine portfolio
decision needs their adviser thinking
about incorporation, EPC funding
and exit timing, not rekeying details
the lender already has on file. The less
friction in the transaction, the more
of that conversation actually happens,
and the more it’s the broker having
it rather than the client muddling
through alone.
Refinancing stopped being the quiet
part of buy-to-let a while ago. The
question worth asking isn’t whether
lenders are making it easier. It’s
whether we’re making it easier for the
right reason, so advisers can spend
less time on the file and more time on
the client.●
If lenders can fix the system, brokers can help landlords figure out what is best for them
