A survey of mortgage brokers has revealed that the proportion expecting to do more buy-to-let business over the next 12 months is at the highest level since 2014.

In the survey of almost 200 intermediaries, undertaken as part of Paragon’s Financial Adviser Confidence Tracker (FACT) index, a total of 50% were recorded as anticipating higher levels of buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage business over the coming year when compared to the last, with 21% expecting transactions to increase by 10% or more.

This represents an uptick in optimism which dipped slightly in Q4 2020 when a total of 41% of intermediaries forecasted more business over the year ahead.

A significant driver of this positive outlook is the demand for buy-to-let mortgages currently being experienced, with just under half (47%) of brokers stating it is either ‘Very strong’ or ‘Strong’, up from the 44% reported in the final quarter of 2020. The proportion of intermediaries experiencing ‘Weak’ or ‘Very weak’ demand was the lowest since before the start of the Covid-19 outbreak at just 12%.

Richard Rowntree, Paragon Bank Managing Director of Mortgages, commented: “We know that brokers have an excellent grasp of current conditions and can often accurately predict how things will pan out in the coming months so our quarterly Financial Adviser Confidence Tracker survey provides a useful picture of the mortgage market.

“It’s fantastic to see that such high levels of optimism have been recorded following the challenges of the past year or so and that this is being driven by strong levels of demand. The extension of the Stamp Duty holiday is certainly a driver of that, but it is underpinned by longer-term demand for rental property.”