Positivity among buy-to-let (BTL) landlords has more than doubled since last year’s Autumn Budget, Landbay has revealed.

The BTL lender’s latest survey found that 36% of landlords said they felt positive about the future of their BTL businesses, up from 18% following last year’s Autumn Budget announcement.

Meanwhile, the number of landlords feeling negative about their future business prospects has declined from 43% following the Autumn Budget, to 21% now.

The survey, which was conducted in May, revealed that 44% of BTL landlords remain neutral about their business prospects, which is a similar proportion to previous surveys last year and in Q2 2024 (40%).

Landlords stated that rental demand and strong rental yields as key reasons for their optimism, with those invested for the long-term believing that property investment is "still viable" and a "rewarding investment".

One landlord told Landbay: "Whilst landlords are exiting the market, this has caused rents to increase because of the lack of stock, allowing a decent return. It took two hours to rent my last property."

Sales and distribution director at Landbay, Rob Stanton, said that rebounding landlord confidence is encouraging to see.

He concluded: "The data reflects what we are hearing on the ground with high rental demand and strong yields helping to underpin optimism across the sector. On top of that, our survey and lending data tells us that landlords remain committed to the sector – not just staying put, but seizing new investment opportunities available in the market.

"As the data demonstrates, this isn’t the story for everyone and is likely a shifting picture as we head towards the Autumn Budget. As a lender in this space, it is our duty to work closely with our intermediary partners to throw our arms around these landlords, remind them what the sector has to offer and use our broad range of products to give them the confidence to refinance their existing properties and expand their rental portfolios."

---