More and more landlords are looking to remortgage their properties in the coming 12 months, says Foundation Home Loans.

In a survey completed by over 750 buy-to-let investors of all types, the lender shows that 30% of landlords plan to remortgage over the next year, with a third of these wanting to release equity.

And while 20% of consumer landlords want to remortgage, 43% of portfolio landlords (classed as those with over four properties) replied that they would like to do this in the next 12 months.

The average portfolio landlord’s holdings as of Q2 2021 come to just over £2m with an average LTV of 56.2%, up from £1.9m in Q1 2021, although some way off the £2.4m seen in the first quarter of 2020.

Landlords with one to three properties can boast of having £1m in total value on average. This is down slightly on the quarter but exceeds Q1 2020’s average value by some margin, when it came to £885,000.

And the average portfolio value of landlords of all types, consisting of 6.9 properties with an average LTV of 49.5% all together, is £1.25m.

Foundation adds that 40% of all properties in the average portfolio are owned outright.

Additionally, the lender believes that rising property values have led to increased confidence in portfolio landlords. Here, 46% feel either ‘good’ or ‘very good’ about the future compared to 35% of landlords with fewer than four properties.

However, it is landlords with more than 20 properties who are the optimistic, with 50% responding positively.

Foundation says it is likely that any released equity resulting from landlords’ plans will be put towards future property purchases.

Commercial director George Gee adds: “Over the past year, in many areas of the country, we’ve seen double-digit house price growth, and even without access to the stamp duty holiday, the intention to remortgage to take out that increased value to purchase more has grown.

“It means advisers are likely to see a growing spike in BTL remortgage advice demand, and the positive news is there are very competitive product options for all types of portfolio landlords at present.”