The changing buy-to-let market
Belton said landlords had become more commercially focused over the past decade, driven by tax changes, higher affordability requirements and increased pressure on yields. The market, he said, had shifted decisively towards limited company and SPV borrowing, while advisers were now dealing with a broader mix of specialist property types including HMOs and multi-unit blocks.
He also pointed to changing investment patterns within the sector. Some landlords were favouring newer properties with stronger EPC ratings, while others were looking beyond southern England in search of higher returns as yields in London became increasingly compressed.
Despite sustained policy and cost pressures on landlords, Belton said the rental sector remained firmly established within the wider housing market. “It feels like there was a move to try and reduce the amount of properties within the rental space and move more towards home ownership which hasn’t really happened,” he said. “Rental is definitely a tenure here to stay.”
For advisers, that shift had created a markedly more specialist market than the one many entered earlier in their careers. “When I first started in the industry a lot of the business was very much in a single property buy-to-let, fairly vanilla,” he said. “But today this is very, very different.”
Helping advisers navigate complexity
Belton stopped short of saying networks were directly shaping adviser strategy, arguing that many buy-to-let advisers had already developed significant expertise in specialist lending. Instead, he positioned networks as a support structure designed to provide consistency, education and closer access to lenders as cases become more complex.