Agents - are you seeing more ‘later life’ buy to let landlords?

A new report suggests that agents may already be seeing more middle-aged and older landlords - and if that hasn’t happened yet, it will soon.

Paragon Bank says the number of buy to let acquisitions made by later life landlords nearing retirement age has increased over 50 per cent in the past year - more than any other age bracket.

There was a 52 per cent rise in the number of BTL property purchases by landlords aged 60 to 64 in the 12 months to the end of June 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier. However, as a proportion of the overall market, this age group remains relatively modest, accounting for just over five per cent of BTL deals. 

Richard Rowntree, Paragon Bank’s managing director, says: “There was a distinct spike in the number of purchases made by those nearing retirement age once the housing market reopened in May 2020. There could be many contributing reasons for this trend, with low returns from savings and stock market volatility being a potential factor as this demographic seeks to boost retirement income.

“The pandemic may have also led to an increase in people around this age deciding to either take redundancy or early retirement, which would have given them potential access to a lump sum of money to invest, or they are simply experienced landlords who took advantage of the stamp duty holiday to lower their purchasing costs. Of course, sadly, inheritance can also result in a one-off cash boost.”

Paragon, in line with most other buy to let lenders, has a maximum age limit of 85 at the end of a mortgage term.

Landlords aged between 40 and 44 recorded the second highest percentage increase during the year to June, at 49 per cent, cent; the next highest increase was amongst 55 to 59 year olds, seeing a 45 per cent spike.

Rowntree adds: “While there was a sharp increase in older landlords purchasing new homes, it was also encouraging to see the majority of purchases in terms of absolute numbers being made by those aged between 35 and 50. This suggests that there’s a strong pipeline of younger landlords growing portfolios.”