Mortgages for Business has reported that buy-to-let fixed rates rose in April across two, three and five-year terms.
The firm’s latest Buy-to-let Mortgage Product Index, found that after a first quarter defined by successive rate cuts, April saw buy-to-let fixed rates increasing in a near-perfect reversal of March’s reductions.
Only five-year fixed rates failed to return to their February averages, remaining 0.01% lower at 3.76% versus 3.77% in February.
This is the first month since January when the Index has shown any rate increases, both among fixed and variable products. Average rates for some terms had consistently fallen for even longer, particularly three-year fixed rates, which fell every month between April 2016 and March 2017. Across this period the average three-year fixed rate fell from 4.50%, to 3.53%, with each new month from June setting a new record low.
Steve Olejnik, chief operating officer (COO) of Mortgages for Business, said: “For some time now buy-to-let mortgage lenders have been cutting rates to maintain lending volume in a sector that has been actively targeted by both the taxman and the regulator. Rates can only fall so far, however, and figures from April suggest we may have reached the limit.”
Although April brought increases in fixed rates, especially for shorter terms, no discernible pattern emerged among variable rate products.