Several lenders have revised their products as competition for buy to let landlords hots up.

Melton Building Society has launched four new buy to let fixed rate products.

These include two options for business buy to let landlords and two for family buy to let landlords.

For business landlords, Melton offers a two-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.35% and a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.05%, both with a £995 fee.

Family landlords are offered a two-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.95% and a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.15%, each with a £199 fee. 

All products are available up to a maximum of 75% loan-to-value (LTV).

“We understand it’s been a challenging few years for landlords, the majority of whom will have experienced a great deal of change and volatility” says a spokesperson.

Meanwhile Paragon Bank has simplified its buy to let mortgages range, mostly around the removal of the distinction between portfolio and non-portfolio landlords.

The lender has consolidated products and has also been able to reduce its product guides from nine to three, with options for buy-to-let, switch or further advance mortgages.

A spokesperson says “The simplification of our buy to let product range was driven by conversations with brokers, as well as our culture of challenging how and why we do things, streamlining processes and making it easier to do business with us. Much of what we’ve done has taken place in the background, but brokers landing on our intermediary web page will notice it is cleaner and all the important information is easy to find.”

And Hodge says it will now lend on properties that have one fully self-contained annexe. These can now be accepted providing they are either let on a short-term basis for holiday letting, or occupied by related parties to the property owner.

The move comes as Hodge recognises the number of homes with annexes in the UK is on the rise due to an increase in cross-generational living caused by childcare costs, an increasing number of families supporting their children in saving for their own property, and greater numbers of people working from home.

Jonathan Matthews, head of property risk at Hodge, says: “We continue to see demand for properties with a self-contained annexe as families look to support one another intergenerationally. This change represents further flexibility in our property criteria, removing any ambiguity around annexes for your customers.”