Landlords 'faring better' as mortgage arrears rise

Buy-to-let landlords are less likely to be in arrears than the mortgage market as a whole, research has found.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), 1.1 per cent of these loans are three months in arrears, slightly lower than the overall figure of 1.33 per cent.

Despite the problems being faced by many buy-to-let landlords, CML director general Michael Coogan stated: "We expect the rental market to remain underpinned by strong demand, partly because some people who would like to buy a home are being forced to carry on renting for now."

The figures also show that buy-to-let mortgages are declining at a slower rate than residential equivalents and now represent nine per cent of the total.

Financial advisor Hargreaves Lansdown recently estimated that 10,000 landlords are three months behind on payments and predicted that this would increase further, as many come to the end of cheap fixed-rate deals.

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