The Intermediary – June 2025 - Flipbook - Page 47
Q&A
necessarily mean letting your guard down. The
higher the LTV, the more robust the property
and borrower should be, but there’s good quality
business to be had.
What are some of the biggest shifts
you’ve seen in the UK market?
There are the obvious things like Covid-19 and
Brexit, which impacted the market in some
positive, some negative ways. But it’s the tax
UK property evolved?
changes that drive the underlying long-term
changes, whether that’s Stamp Duty or tax relief.
In the run up to when we launched in 2015, the
We’re seeing a lot of landlords give up because
market had a bit of a bull run after the financial
it’s less easy to do business and make profits.
crisis, property prices were going up for a
That’s tough for the market – we’re not building
considerable while. Then, with Brexit came a
social housing, we’re reliant upon the private
bit of a slowdown. Property price increases
rental sector (PRS) for the rental market,
haven’t been quite so bullish since then,
and people need to rent.
but they have been robust through the
I do worry that some changes will
pandemic, and despite various changes
erode the attractiveness for property
to Stamp Duty, they remain pretty
investors in the UK, though that mayb
positive now.
be an advantage for overseas clients.
Part of that is driven by the lack of
The BTL market has dropped in scale.
building over the past 30 years relative
Some of that is political – there’s a bit
to demand – and the insatiable appetite in
of short-termism. We still need more
the UK for owning property.
housing, and if people can’t afford to buy,
Non-UK borrowers, whether expats or
you’ve got to find people willing to invest in
TIM PARKES the rental market. So, I think we’re naïve in
foreign nationals, like the UK because of the
certainty that the market is robust, as well as
the UK. We put too many barriers in place for
a very well-regarded legal system compared to
property investors when we should be attracting
many other countries, one which makes sure a
investors.
person can be confident in ownership.
The Renters’ Rights Bill obviously puts more
Even considering factors like Brexit, foreign
burden on landlords. It will hopefully remove
nationals often see the UK as a safer place for
some poor-quality landlords and properties from
their money and their assets. Over the last few
the market, and it puts renters in a much stronger
years, for example, where inflation in Turkey has
position, but there is a balance with these things.
suddenly increased dramatically, people are keen
I certainly think complexity makes it harder
to get assets to a more stable jurisdiction.
for people to get past ‘go’. If you can’t tick all
When we first started off, international buyers
those boxes, you then end up needing to go to a
were focused on London, but we’ve seen quite a
specialist who understands your particular market.
lot of focus recently on other cities – Manchester,
Obviously, that’s hard if you’re somewhere else in
Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool. They seem to follow
the world, knowing which brokers and lenders to
where the football teams are based!
go to – do you just pick the first broker that shows
Prices are obviously quite high in London, so for
up on Google?
a buy-to-let (BTL) borrower, what you’re looking
It’s also hard when lenders want to make their
for is a positive yield. It’s much easier to create
life easier by using a computer front-end. That’s
that in Manchester or Birmingham now.
why we’ve kept the human front-end deliberately
If you look domestically, there’s a lot of talk
in our own business.
about the Renters’ Rights Bill. That matters less
to international borrowers, not least because
Where do you see RAW going 10
they normally put their trust in a managing agent.
years from now?
Often, they’re investing because they want to
protect their capital, and they think the UK is a
We’ve grown pretty steadily over the past decade,
better jurisdiction for that. That means there will
I expect that to continue – more like 200 people,
still be a strong demand in the future.
rather than 25, and we’ll expand within the UK, as
The feedback we get from brokers typically is
well as looking at having people on the ground in
that they like coming to us because they can talk
some of our clients’ jurisdictions.
to a human being, they can get some feedback.
We’re keen to develop, making sure that
They like being able to fire questions off to us quite
we maintain service and that ‘whole picture’
quickly to get some idea about whether they’re
consideration for borrowers. ●
wasting their time or not.
How has international interest in
June 2025 | The Intermediary
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