Let-to-buy 'can help' early-stage buyers

Let-to-buy mortgages can be useful for people on the early stages of property hopping, but are not wide-reaching or as relevant as they used to be, according to property experts.

Real estate specialist Landlord Mortgages claimed that let-to-buy mortgages were less relevant now that most lenders considered buy-to-let as a self-funding scheme.

Let-to-buy mortgages allow people to move house and let out an existing home – with the new mortgage lender considering the property being let as self funding, through the rental income that will cover its buy-to-let mortgage.

Lee Grandin, director of Landlord Mortgages, said: "Quite often [let-to-buy] is best for the second-time home mover. It's really people in the first stages of house hopping that it would suit.

"They tend to be quite strict on the income anyway, and they may see that the current home they live in – because it was suitable for them as a first-time buyer – will be suitable for a first-time renter."

He added that with most mortgage lenders now considering buy-to-let to be self-funding anyway, let-to-buy schemes have for many "been made redundant".

News posted on 20th December, 2007