The death of buy to let

Following the changes to stamp duty and the restriction in mortgage interest relief for buy to lets, the market is in a state of freefall.

It is basically just much more expensive to buy and own a buy to let property.

The latest nail in the coffin comes from one of the leading buy to let lenders, The Mortgage Works (Nationwide), who have just increased the stress test on their buy to let calculator from 125% to 145% of the mortgage interest cost at 5.49%. This makes it even harder for rents to achieve the necessary borrowing.

The only way for this to be overcome is a significant fall in house prices or higher rents - and I can't see prices falling !