Buy-to-let must surely be one of the financial success stories of our times. Just think about this. Prior to 1996 there were no buy-to-let mortgages. According to the Halifax, the number of buy-to-let mortgages jumped from 275,000 at the end of 2002 to 408,300 by the end of 2003. By the end of 2005 there…
Before the buy-to-let scheme started in 1996 it was extremely difficult for private investors to raise finance on residential investment property, unless they were already high net-worth individuals, or were high-income earners, or both. At that time any residential property loan, other than a standard mortgage loan to an owner-occupier, would be treated by the…
Over the last few years several things have coincided to boost the market for private residential property investment: The performance of the stock market has been relatively poor over the last decade. Here’s a fact you’ll very often hear quoted. On January 1st 2000 the FTSE stood at 7,000. Today, as I write, more than…
