According to the criteria search specialist, the BTL market remains attractive to long-term investors, thanks to the rising house prices and strong demand for rental properties.

However, Knowledge Banks predicts that the rising product rates might squeeze margins and may adversely affect those landlords most heavily leveraged.

Overall, BTL searches in April were similar to March’s tracker results, with ‘lending to limited companies’ and ‘requirement to be a homeowner’ taking the second and third spots.

‘First-time buyers’ also appeared again in the month’s top five most-searched terms.

Criteria searches in the bridging and commercial lending categories also remained consistent with March’s results.

•   How to energise your team and get at least 10% more return on your salary investment
•   'First-time landlord' tops BTL broker searches
•   'Commercial property' re-enters top five bridging search terms

‘Regulated bridging’ was the most popular term for the sixth time in a row for bridging, followed by ‘minimum loan amount’ and ‘maximum LTV’.

Meanwhile in the commercial sector, ‘semi-commercial properties’ topped broker searches again, with ‘maximum LTV’ and ‘minimum loan amount’ placing second and third, respectively.

“With criteria changing every single day it’s too easy to put the cart before the horse and start refining product rates without establishing whether your borrower will be accepted by the lender in the first place” said Matthew Corker, operations director at Knowledge Bank. 

“In a rising interest rate environment, we should expect affordability to become even more prominent in lenders’ minds as that relates to the borrower not the product. 

“It is crucial that brokers check criteria prior to a product search to avoid wasted time in the application process.”