Andrew Montlake, director at mortgage broker Coreco, comments, “I suspect there will be more than a few people who want to use their new pension freedoms and many will undoubtedly look to bricks and mortar as a way of investing this cash.
“The attraction will be the fact that buyers can obtain an income and hopefully a growth in the asset value, as well as being a tangible asset that investors can actually see. For many people this aspect is important and property is something that they understand and can relate to.
“The current crop of products available for Buy To Let customers do offer most borrowers a broad spread of options, and much like their residential counterparts, buy-to-let mortgage rates have never been so low.
“The real question for many lenders is to look at their age limits as some lenders will not provide the loan for long enough into retirement for some borrowers. I suspect we may see this start to change, on the buy to let side at least, as lenders react to demand for investment loans for longer.
“When all is said and done, the reality is likely to be a bit less exciting than some report and it is doubtful we will see a sudden explosion as “Granlords” flood the market, especially as they work out the tax implications of cashing in the whole pension at once.
“More likely we will see a gradual change over time, but this sector of the market will undoubtedly grow”.