Rate cut joy for 'lucky landlords'

News Category: Industry News

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Landlords on tracker mortgages are the main benefactors in the private rented sector from today's cut in interest rates.

After reducing the base rate to a historic low of 1.5 per cent last month, the Bank of England lowered interest rates by a further 0.5 per cent this afternoon.

Keshav Thukaram, managing director of landlord financial services firm smartlandlord.co.uk, said borrowers of tracker products will welcome today's decision.

It will mean lower repayments on their buy-to-let mortgages amid the possibility of falling rents in 2009.

Some landlords could be requesting credit and reference checks from letting agents this year as rental demand looks set to fall following an increase in supply on the market.

Mr Thukaram said: "Landlords need to be looking at ways to cut costs, manage their portfolios and their tenants carefully and insure themselves against the rising issue of rental arrears."

This prediction comes after a survey by the National Landlords Association in December found that 71 per cent of landlords expected to encounter more problems with rental debt in 2009.

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