Volatility means the days of landlords ‘DIY-ing’ their mortgage finance should be fading

Recently I spoke at the Mortgage Adviser Expo London event panel discussion on ‘landlord lending in a post-Renters’ Rights world’, where it quickly became clear that everyone taking part kept returning to the same underlying issue.

Here I was speaking alongside Louisa Sedgwick from Paragon, Roger Morris from Chetwood and Adrian Moloney from OSB – ably chaired by ‘The Major’, David Whittaker, of Keystone Property Finance.

Our discussion ended up focusing heavily on how the buy-to-let market is increasingly feeling like it’s not just dealing with short-term periods of volatility, before returning to some semblance of normality, but that those more uncertain times are actually merging more and more into one another.

In that sense, we are starting to ask whether all stakeholders need to be prepared to cope with a much more permanent state of volatility which influences lender behaviour, but also landlord confidence and adviser conversations on a near daily basis.

At the start of the year, many across the sector expected 2026 to bring greater levels of stability after a much stronger 2025 market. UK Finance data showed buy-to-let lending reached £42bn last year, up 22% on the previous year, and there was a sense the market was moving into a more settled phase.

The optimism that we took into the new year has clearly been impacted more recently. At Fleet, January and February were very positive months, however by March the market had shifted significantly as geopolitical events, inflation concerns and swap rate movement all combined to create a much more uncertain environment.

During the discussion, I described the market as being stuck in “an endless loop, with no stability”, and I suspect many advisers would recognise exactly what that feels like in practice.

A market that keeps moving

One of the major challenges for advisers and landlord borrowers is product pricing and lender appetite can now change very quickly. We have seen periods this year where lenders have struggled to maintain fixed rate pricing because underlying funding costs have moved so sharply within short timeframes. That uncertainty naturally impacts landlord decision-making, particularly when borrowers are trying to refinance larger or increasingly complex portfolios.

During the panel discussion, Adrian highlighted the strength of the product transfer market and suggested this would continue throughout the rest of the year, while Louisa pointed to longer timelines between application and completion as rates have increased.

We are also seeing far greater interest in tracker products. During the panel, we discussed the increased traction trackers are gaining because many borrowers value flexibility in uncertain conditions, especially products without early repayment charges which allow them to move quickly should fixed rates improve later in the year.

And, of course, a major takeaway is that this is not necessarily the type of market where borrowers can comfortably navigate choices alone, particularly when the wrong decision could have significant cost implications across an entire portfolio.

Complexity continues to increase

Alongside volatility, landlords are also facing a much more complicated operating environment. We spent considerable time discussing both the Renters’ Rights legislation and future EPC requirements, and while opinions differed on certain aspects, there was broad agreement that regulation will continue to professionalise the sector.

During the discussion, I made the point that legislation is likely to remove more amateur landlords from the market, while experienced investors will increasingly treat property as a long-term professional business. That matters because today’s landlord borrower is often very different from the landlord of 10/15 years ago.

Many now hold larger portfolios, operate through limited companies, invest in more specialist property types, or require more complex refinancing strategies. Add affordability pressures, evolving lender criteria, EPC and energy-efficiency requirements and ongoing rate volatility into that mix, and it becomes increasingly difficult to argue that buy-to-let borrowing remains a straightforward transactional exercise.

Advisers need to position themselves accordingly

For advisers, this creates a significant opportunity, but only if they are willing to position themselves as specialists. Landlord borrowers need advisers who understand not just products and pricing, but also portfolio structures, lender criteria, regulation, refinancing strategies and how to respond quickly when markets move unexpectedly.

Importantly, advisers should not assume landlords automatically understand how much the market has changed. Many borrowers may still believe they can source products themselves in the same way they might have done previously, however the modern buy-to-let market increasingly demands specialist knowledge and ongoing guidance.

Trying to make predictions about what happens next does appear to be something of a fool’s errand. It will perhaps surprise no-one to hear that not one person on the panel claimed to know exactly what the second half of 2026 will look like because the reality is nobody does.

What does seem increasingly clear, however, is that a growing sense of ongoing, perhaps permanent, volatility and rising complexity are making professional advice more valuable than ever for landlord borrowers, and advisers who establish themselves as genuine specialists in this space are likely to become even more important over the coming years.