John Goodall, CEO and founder of Landbay, has spoken of his delight that the digital mortgage lender has reported a record month of buy-to-let lending in September.
Landbay recorded a total of £6.31million lent across 31 mortgages, and Mr Goodall says he is immensely proud of the accomplishment.
September’s lending levels were higher than the two previous months combined, due in part to both swelling inflows through the Innovative Finance ISA and mounting institutional investment on the peer-to-peer lending side, combined with a broadened range of intermediary partners on the borrower side.
To accommodate this rapid growth, Landbay has already made five new hires. Among them, James Cooper-Smith and Joela Jenvey both join the lending team as Senior Lending Officer and Key Account Manager respectively, while Wing Chan joins the wider team as Operating Manager.
As the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) introduces fresh regulation into the mortgage market, these strategic hires have put Landbay in a strong position to capitalise on what is fast becoming an increasingly professional and specialised buy to let market.
The PRA’s new underwriting rules for portfolio landlords are have caused a number of mainstream lenders to reconsider their commitment to the buy-to-let market in recent months, but it has played into the hand of specialist lenders like Landbay. The momentum of lending in September is expected to continue into Q4 and beyond as portfolio landlords, and their brokers, look to specialist lenders to support them through the more restrictive lending environment.
Since launching in 2014, Landbay has established itself as an innovative and responsive lender in the buy-to-let space. As the company approaches its fourth birthday, it has now lent a total of £59.56million to professional landlords across the UK, with zero defaults, arrears or late payments to date.
And Mr Goodall said: “Over the past four years we have invested a lot of time and money into building a platform that we can be proud of. One that provides a competitive source of funding for professional landlords, a credible opportunity for investors, and is able to scale quickly to meet growing demand for specialist buy to let lending.
“Like any fast rising new entrant, we’ve experienced some growing pains along the way, but our track record speaks for itself and we now have all the building blocks in place to support continued expansion of the company.”