A leading buy to let specialist lender says the vast number of BTL mortgage products now on the market has made it absolutely necessary for potential landlords to use a broker.

Andrew Turner, chief executive at Commercial Trust Limited, says the value to landlords of utilising a broker working with a wide breadth of lenders has never been greater.

He says there are now some 2,162 buy to let products – that’s the most since October 2007, just before the financial crisis struck. 

And he adds that a prospective client’s exact requirements – for example, whether they are investing in an HMO, or student accommodation, or in a market where yields are low – will all have some bearing on the appropriateness or otherwise of a particular mortgage type.

“A recent Legal and General report suggested that 69 per cent of consumers, including buy to let landlords, had not remortgaged in the previous five years, believing they were on a good deal. What was a good deal five years ago, may not look so tempting in today’s market.  Borrowers who have stuck to their guns, might have paid hundreds or thousands of pounds more, by not remortgaging to cheaper deals” he adds.

He says research shows that brokers have access to six times more products compared to going directly through a lender.

The Legal and General report reflected strong support for using brokers, with 98 per cent of borrowers finding the help they received ‘valuable’ and 95 per cent saying they would recommend using a broker to friends or family.