The next BTL buying cycle could start with a remortgage

If you were trying to work out where the next spell of BTL buying activity might come from, you would probably start by looking at purchase numbers.

However, I think there is a strong case for looking backwards before we look forwards. A lot of capital is sitting in properties landlords already own, which means the refinancing activity taking place now could have quite a bearing on what they buy next.

The Landlord Trends Q2 2026 research from Pegasus Insight found that 57% of leveraged landlords arranged a new loan, remortgage or product transfer in the 12 months to June 2026, matching the record high reached at the end of 2025 and rising from 39% two years earlier. Remortgages and product transfers accounted for around eight in ten recent transactions, while new purchases represented just 8%.

You could justifiably take those numbers as evidence of landlords concentrating on the properties they already own. They are sorting out existing borrowing rather than buying, refinancing what they have and generally getting their houses — quite literally — in order.

There is another way to read it, though. Some of the refinancing taking place today could end up providing the capital behind the purchases we see tomorrow.

Today’s refinance could fund tomorrow’s purchase

A landlord coming to the end of a fixed term does not necessarily look like the same borrower who took that mortgage out two or five years ago. Rental conditions may have changed, the property may be worth more, their income could be different and, crucially, their ambitions may have moved on.

That is certainly something coming through in our experience at Molo. Somebody who came to us as a first-time landlord two years ago can return as a rather different proposition, looking to buy more rather than sell, with what was a small portfolio beginning to develop into something grander.

So, when that first mortgage comes up for refinancing, there is potentially more to discuss than the replacement deal. If there is equity available and the numbers work, the discussion can move from ‘What do I replace this mortgage with?’ to ‘What can I do with what I have built?’

Of course, extracting as much equity as possible and rushing out to buy the first property with a For Sale board outside would make little sense. More borrowing costs more money, and experienced landlords will know fairly quickly whether the numbers leave them with enough of a return to make the purchase worthwhile.

What refinancing does provide, however, is a point at which the landlord can run the numbers again and decide what comes next. Some may simply secure the right deal on the existing property, while others may find there is enough room to start thinking about another purchase.

The refinancing pipeline is already there

Another 40% of landlords expect to remortgage or take a product transfer during the next 12 months, according to the aforementioned Pegasus Insight research. Among portfolio landlords, that rises to around half, with those borrowers expecting to refinance an average of 3.7 loans.¹

Put that together and there is already a decent pipeline sitting within existing landlord portfolios, before anybody goes looking for a new customer. More importantly, portfolio landlords may have several refinancing events arriving within a relatively short period.

With several properties in play, I do not think it makes much sense to view each maturity on its own. If three or four loans are coming up within a year, there is an opportunity to look across the portfolio and work out where the equity sits, what is performing well, what could be refinanced and whether there is enough financial firepower for another purchase.

Naturally, the answer will not always be ‘buy another one’. Some landlords will take the cheaper or simpler route, some will reduce debt and others will decide their money would be better spent on the properties they already have.

Either way, that decision is much easier to make when somebody has looked across the portfolio rather than treating mortgage number three as a job to be ticked off before moving on to mortgage number four. With professional landlords in particular, several individual borrowing decisions can add up to a fairly substantial amount of capital.

Look backwards to move forwards

There is a fantastic opportunity here as we move into 2027, particularly when new clients are not always easy to find. Before spending all that time looking for the next one, brokers can go back through the existing client bank and see which landlords have mortgages coming up.

As an intermediated lender, that broker relationship is so important to us. When one of those mortgages reaches the end of its term, we want the broker who introduced that customer to remain part of what happens next. If the landlord simply needs a product transfer, that is one conversation. If they need additional borrowing because another BTL purchase is on the cards, that opens up a different one.

That is why a mortgage maturity should not be seen as a single event in isolation. Its real value lies in the conversation it creates and what that can tell us about where the landlord is heading next.