Treasury urged not to regulate BTL

The Treasury has been urged not to regulate buy-to-let lending by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). While agreeing with proposals to extend regulation to cover second-charge mortgages and to ensure borrowers are protected when mortgage books are sold on, the CML said that regulating buy-to-let loans would not result in increased consumer protection and would almost certainly capture too wide a range of commercial transactions. In addition, the Treasury proposals failed to help buy-to-let borrowers decide whether to invest in property at all, the CML said. "Fundamentally, the CML still believes that buy-to-let loans are essentially commercial transactions with an investment dimension, and should not be subject to retail mortgage regulation," it added.