People take out a buy to let mortgage when they want to buy property as an investment. Many times the borrower is already a homeowner keeping their existing property as collateral for the mortgage.

The mortgage was in the early years a risky option for lenders to offer as there was no guarantee that your property would always be leased or rented out. They were known as commercial mortgages which offered a higher interest rate than a conventional mortgage. In recent years the buy to let market has grown rapidly and with house prices rocketing many looked upon it as an investment, making buy to let mortgages very popular.

There are lots of buy to let mortgages available on the market, ranging from special offer mortgages giving you a discount rate to flexible and variable loans. You can even pick one up from your local building society rather than a bank. Always talk to a financial advisor before taking out a mortgage as they lenders could repossess your property if payments are not kept up. Many schemes also lend enough for you to buy two or more properties by re mortgaging the last property in order to raise the deposit for the next one.