Over one in five (22%) buy-to-let (BTL) landlords have moved to a new lender when remortgaging their property to cut costs, Foundation Home Loans has found.

In its latest landlord trends report for Q1 2024, the lender stated that a "significant number" of BTL landlords have made financial changes over the last 18 months to mitigate the rising costs of running a rental property, including renegotiating mortgage finance, increasing rent and selling property.

Foundation revealed that 30% of landlords surveyed said they had renegotiated their mortgage with their existing lender, 29% had increased rents and 25% had cancelled plans to purchase additional property.

Furthermore, the online survey, which was conducted via video interviews with 774 landlords between March and April, also found that 15% said they had paid part of their monthly mortgage payment out of non-rental income like savings.

The research also revealed that 15% of landlords said they had sold a property to reduce their mortgage outgoings, with 17% stating that to cut mortgage costs, they have sold a property.

Director of sales at Foundation Home Loans, Grant Hendry, said: "While we have seen rates come down off their 2023 highs, there will still be large numbers of landlords who are coming to the end of their current deals, and are looking for solutions in order to keep down any mortgage cost increases.

"It’s clear this presents a real opportunity for advisers in the BTL space, not least because a significant minority are still opting to go direct to their lender, rather than review what is available across the entire market. Plus, a number feel they are getting ‘advice’ in doing this, which may support their understanding of the rate type, but does not open them to what’s available from other lenders."

When asked how they had arranged their most recent BTL mortgage, the research revealed that over two thirds (68%) of landlords had done so via a mortgage adviser, while 26% had dealt directly with a lender, and 3% had done so through an online broker or robo-advice platform.

Hendry added: "Advisers can clearly play a vital and pivotal role for them, and our survey numbers suggest there are still a significant number of landlords who are not using the services of an adviser, and therefore missing out on a raft of product options, not forgetting the protection that comes with advice."

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