The data revealed that 16% of landlords intend to purchase over the next 12 months, 48% plan to do so in Q1, 41% in Q2, 28% in Q3, and 29% in Q4.
In addition, just 14% of landlords said that they would abort their transaction if completion before the SDLT deadline did not look achievable.
Of those landlords intending to purchase in Q1, 65% said they were very or quite confident they would complete by 31 March.
When the respondents were questioned whether they believed the government would extend the stamp duty deadline, 28% said yes, while 31% disagreed.
In addition, only 4% of those surveyed said they were purchasing because of the availability of the stamp duty holiday
A quarter of those intending to purchase in 2021 said they were holding off purchasing as they believed property prices were currently inflated.
The research was undertaken by BVA BDRC and carried out between December and January with the results based on 846 online interviews.
George Gee, commercial director at Foundation Home Loans, said: “As we know landlords think long and hard before adding to their portfolios and, as our research reveals, they are unlikely to just confine any purchase activity to the first quarter of this year in order to simply benefit from the stamp duty holiday.
“There are a number of positive results to come out of our exclusive research, not least landlords’ continued intention to keep on purchasing after the deadline has passed, and the news that many landlords will not abort their transactions if there is no extension and they look unlikely to complete by 31 March.
“In that regard, the next month and a half is very important for the sector.
“Foundation has put in place significant extra resources to our completions team in order to ensure we can complete as many cases as possible by the end of March.
“Looking beyond Q1, there will clearly be ongoing opportunities for advisers active in the landlord borrower space, and all the signals point to significant activity taking place in both the purchase and remortgage sectors.
“We should not forget that many landlords’ special rates are coming to an end over the months ahead, especially those that bought prior to the last stamp duty surcharge increase for additional homeowners back in Q1 2016.
“Foundation’s new range of buy-to-let products and our new limited edition limited company deals should offer landlord clients a variety of options, in order to achieve their aims through 2021.”
