Our Facebook Live update last Friday was with Ben from Revell Turner & Wass. Ben has been a qualified financial advisor for 24 years, and specialising in mortgages for the last 20 years. Revell Turner & Wass is an independent mortgage broker, which means they have access to the whole of the lending market and so are able to get you access to the very best deals.

Before we talk a bit about the key takeaways of this session, don’t forget, you can watch a replay of Maxine’s chat with Ben by joining our landlord group here, and scrolling to the video on the timeline.

At Maxine Lester, we’ve been working with Ben for the last 15 years, and he always tells you what you need to know, rather than just what you want to hear – he always provides excellent insight.

Here are our key takeaways:

Don’t believe all of the media

RICS are reporting that landlord instructions are flat, but that’s not been Ben’s experience. It’s just taking a lot longer for mortgage applications to be approved, due to lenders having a back log of applications and also requiring more information than usual, being extra cautious who they lend to.

There are also lots of reports about price increases – but it’s important to look at the market as a whole and not take one set of figures as indicative of the whole market. There are price increases at the £500,000 end of the market, likely to do with buyers and landlords taking advantage of the Stamp Duty holiday, but at the lower end of the market where first time buyers are finding it harder to get mortgages, there isn’t much movement in prices.

Building a buy-to-let portfolio

If you’re looking for short-term gain by buying and selling property, now probably isn’t the safest time to do that with so much unpredictability. However, if you’re looking at the long game then:

• Rates are the best they’ve been
• There’s less competition
• You can benefit from the Stamp Duty holiday
• You are looking at a 25% deposit and may need to go through hoops
• If it can get you a 4/5% return then your money will be working harder

If you want to have access to market updates, investment insights, and all things landlord in the Cambridge, St Ives, and Huntingdon areas, please come and join us on our Facebook group exclusively for landlords.