Landlords ARE rushing to buy, says valuations firm

We at Belvoir Wirral would agree. We have been approaced by more BTL landlords during the last two months, December and January, than the rest of 2015 combined.

A rush of landlords looking to purchase buy-to-let properties has been confirmed this morning by new figures from a national surveying and valuation firm.

Connells Survey & Valuation carried out an astonishing 86% more buy-to-let valuations last month than in December the previous year.

While the figure represented a slight monthly dip of 1%, this was far less than the usual seasonal falls in other types of valuations – for home movers, first-time buyers and people remortgaging.

John Bagshaw, director of the firm, said: “December’s results are a reflection of the ever-increasing demand for homes as investment opportunities.

“The added factor of the April 1 Stamp Duty increase has spurred many investors who might have been sitting on the fence to take the plunge.”

Altogether in December, mortgage valuation activity was up 29% year-on-year. That figure compares with the 9% growth between December 2013 and December 2014.