Is buy-to-let becoming more professional in Scotland?
Despite the challenging conditions, MacKenzie said the broker process for buy-to-let cases had not become materially more complex, provided clients were taking appropriate tax advice. “As long as the client is getting tax advice from the relevant people and either doing it in their own name or through a limited company, the rules on how much money they have to have are pretty clear,” he said.
When asked whether the sector has professionalised in Scotland – a trend observed more clearly among brokers in England – MacKenzie said he has not seen the same shift north of the border, but he pointed to one emerging model that was gaining traction.
He referenced Let Property, a platform that has identified a gap in the Scottish market by facilitating the sale of tenanted properties without requiring landlords to vacant possession first. “They found a kind of space where people can sell tenanted properties, it’s a pretty straightforward switchover,” MacKenzie said. “I think they are absolutely booming.”
He said the model reflected a broader truth about the mortgage market, that specialisation was quietly reshaping segments of the industry that from the outside could appear uniform. “There’s so many different arms to the mortgage world and people that specialise in this and that,” he said. “Maybe there is a bit more of a professional side, but they’re not really seen.”