Mr Sykes thought this was down to the fact first-time landlords market was very niche, so brokers had to do more research, but also because more first-time buyers were opting for the buy-to-let sector over the residential market at the moment.
He said: “I’ve got a few clients who cannot afford to buy in London, particularly the type of property they want, but are keen to get on the housing ladder.
“One way they get around this is to purchase a buy-to-let property up North, perhaps in their university city, and rent it out. This way they’re on the property ladder and get an income from it, but get to stay renting somewhere central in the city.”
According to Ms Drakard, the reason more first-time landlords were coming to the market was because more experienced landlords were holding off on increasing their portfolios due to the “tricky” buy-to-let landscape at the moment.
Landlords have experienced multiple tax and regulatory changes in the past few years — from a 3 per cent surcharge in stamp duty to reduced mortgage relief — which has triggered a number of landlords to sell up.
Nicola Firth, chief executive of Knowledge Bank, said: “Our tracker reveals a few shifts this month with interest-only making an appearance in residential searches for the first time this year, most likely as a result of a several new products and criteria changes to this sector.
“It was outstanding to discover that we have seen almost 30,000 mortgage criteria changes year to date, which just goes to show the pace at which our industry is making changes.”
Ms Firth said it was “simply not possible” for any broker to remember the 91,000 pieces of criteria, and that even the best help desks would struggle to update the 28,524 changes the industry has already had in 2019.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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