Specialist buy to let broker Mortgages for Business says landlords buying now can use four tips to beat the chaos in the sales market caused by the stamp duty holiday frenzy. 

It says landlords should:

Choose The Right Location: The slowest local authorities are now taking over 100 days to return property searches, or in some cases even longer. Mortgages for Business highlights Hackney council (180 working days), Bedfordshire (65), Caerphilly (60), Cambridge (50), and North Warwickshire (50) as the worst performers.

Mortgages for Business director Jeni Browne says: “If you have the option, consider the effect that the local authority you are dealing with could have on your purchase. One search we ordered recently took 145 days to complete. If you are considering purchasing a property in Hackney before the turn of the next century, you may want to rethink”.

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The Importance of Broker Portals: Mortgages for Business claims it takes less time to process applications if they’re done via portals with average deadlines shortening from 73 working days to 53 – cutting time it takes to process a transaction by 27 per cent.

Jeni Browne says: “Portals offer clients a space with clear to-do lists, including which documents are required to move the application forward, and the ability to upload all documents quickly and securely, there and then. My advice to landlords looking to take control of their own destiny is to use a specialist broker with portal technology.  It is a very simple way to shave a couple of weeks off a buy-to-let property transaction.”

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Choose the Right Property: The firm says transactions can take 11 per cent longer if the property is a flat, rather than a semi-detached house. “Even if you’re not trying to hit the stamp duty deadline, you may well find that your deal gets caught in the crossfire” explains Browne.

Choose the Right Lender: Mortgage for Business says only half the BTL lenders actively lending are capable of doing a deal within the industry average time. Those purchasing vanilla properties can expect an estimated eight week completion time.

Browne concludes: “Most lenders are still quoting application-to-offer times of about three weeks which doesn’t sound too long – but the reality is these timeframes are not being met. To get deals down relatively quickly, you need to avoid lenders that are dragging their feet.”