How much tinkering at the edges can the housing market take? Every aspect of it is changed, adjusted, regulated, deregulated incessantly and the unintended consequence is chaos. Now it is the turn of buy-to-let mortgages – once flavour of the month and now with warning bells.
Boom and bust, boom and bust and only the lower-waged who desperately need the security of their own homes seem to lose out each time things change.
“… The Bank has already said it is concerned that any loss of confidence in the buy-to-let sector could exacerbate house price falls as 15% of buy-to-let customers would sell their properties if they could not meet their loan commitments through rental payments.
While the Bank is not yet taking action on the buy-to-let sector despite a number of warnings, it is also assessing the impact that George Osborne’s extra 3% stamp duty on buy-to-let homes, announced in last week’s autumn statement, will have on the sector.
Barclays is one lender that has already begun to make changes, altering the rental income criteria from 125% to 135% for all new applications.
East Devon Watch 