The move will see the lender move into the specialist broker arena for the first time, where it will position itself aggressively by offering competitive rates as a way of rapidly building its market share.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Abbey has been piloting its products through intermediaries and is due to launch next month after the pilot comes to an end. It is coming to market with a loan-to-value (LTV) of 85 per cent and quite keen rates under 5 per cent, which will make it very competitive when it enters the BTL sector.”
Earlier this year, Abbey confirmed it had been looking at entering the non-conforming sector, particularly BTL and new build, but refused to be drawn on an exact entry date. While details of its new build proposition have not yet been released, the lender is on track to enter the BTL market within the next four weeks.
Abbey currently offers BTL through its branch network, where its range includes three and five-year fixed and tracker products as well as a lifetime tracker product. However, the lender would not confirm whether its planned intermediary offering would mirror the product range currently in its branches.
Commenting on the move, David Stewart, media relations manager at Abbey, said: “We have been very pleased indeed with our pilot to provide buy-to-let mortgage products through intermediaries and this is an area that may be developed further in the future. However, at this stage we are not able to confirm if this will happen, or if it does, what shape our mortgage offering might take.”
