OneSavings Bank's John Eastgate believes a number of forces are at play in the housing market after new figures showed the buy-to-let market has grown substantially over the last decade.
Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (now part of UK Finance) reveal that the market has grown from 840,000 buy-to-let mortgages with a total balance of £93.2bn at the end of 2006, to 1.8million buy-to-let mortgages with an aggregate balance of £214bn by the end of 2015.
Mr Eastgate, who is the sales and marketing director of the bank, said: “There have clearly been a number of forces at play in the housing market; on the down side we have continuing economic and political uncertainty weighing down on confidence.
"However this is balanced by the persistence of super low interest rates for borrowers, and we have seen good levels of first time buyer activity. Set against this backdrop, it is encouraging to see lending levels up.
“A record number of homeowners will be coming to the end of their initial term in September and October, so we would expect remortgaging to play a bigger role in the coming months. In the buy to let market, we predict a boost in lending later this year as landlords strive to complete deals ahead of the PRA’s upcoming changes to portfolio landlord lending rules.”