Research carried out by buy-to-let specialist lender Paragon Mortgages has revealed that over a third of landlords believe mortgage finance is now more accessible than at any time since the credit crisis began in 2007.

Its latest quarterly survey found that 35% of landlords would describe buy-to-let finance as at least reasonable available, up from 31% in the first three months of the year.

Landlords who own portfolios of between one and five rental properties were the most positive, with 8% describing buy-to-let finance as ‘widely available’, compared to just 3% of those with larger property portfolios.

Availability of buy-to-let finance was described as ‘limited’ by 34% of respondents, and ‘very restricted’ by 12%.

The survey also inquired as to whether landlords were planning to increase the size of their portfolios in the next three months – 19% said they planned to buy more property in the next quarter, up from 13% in the first quarter of the year.

Out of those landlords who intend to buy more property, 63% plan to purchase a terraced house.

John Heron, director of mortgages, said:

“This is very positive news for landlords and shows there has been a meaningful improvement in the availability of buy-to-let finance. As we have seen in other research, there has been a clear shift in terms of growth being led by landlords with smaller portfolios and there has been a marked increase in the number of products being offered and the variety too, at this end of the market.”