Real Estate

UK Buy-to-Let Mortgage Market Shows Green Shoots on Lower Rates

  • Loans on buy-to-let homes rose 39% in the last quarter of 2024
  • Landlords have been under pressure from higher mortgage costs

Estate agents' signs outside a residential apartment block.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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The number of new UK buy-to-let mortgages rose the most in more than three years in the fourth quarter of 2024, signaling a recovery as a dip in borrowing costs offered some relief to buyers.

Some 52,648 new buy-to-let loans were advanced between October and December, up 39% from the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by industry group UK Finance. That’s the highest year-on-year increase since the second quarter of 2021.