Buy-to-let remortgaging hits a record high: what the refinancing surge means for portfolio landlords across Huntingdonshire.

More than half of mortgaged buy-to-let landlords, 57%, arranged a new loan, remortgage or product transfer in the 12 months to June 2026, according to the latest Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends Survey. That is a record high, matching the peak first reached at the end of 2025 and 10 percentage points above the previous quarter. For landlords across Huntingdonshire with a buy-to-let fix due to end this year or next, the figures are a clear signal: most of the market is already shopping around rather than waiting for the deal to lapse.

Why are so many landlords remortgaging right now?

Refinancing, not buying, is doing almost all of the work in today's buy-to-let lending market. Remortgages and product transfers now account for around eight in ten recent buy-to-let transactions, against just 8% for new-purchase mortgages. Official UK Finance data for the first quarter of 2026 tells the same story: 39,160 buy-to-let remortgage loans completed, up 11.1% on the same quarter a year earlier, while loans for buy-to-let purchases fell 14.9% to 16,871. Landlords are restructuring existing borrowing and releasing equity from properties they already own far more often than they are adding new stock.

This is a different figure from the one behind our earlier look at July's buy-to-let rate cuts, which covered what specific lenders were pricing deals at. This week's data is about volume and behaviour: how many landlords are actually acting, and why, once a fix nears its end.

Which landlords are refinancing most?

Portfolio landlords are driving the surge. The average landlord portfolio has grown to 7.3 properties, up from 6.6 at the end of 2025, and landlords with four or more buy-to-let loans are the most likely group to be planning a refinance, with 56% expecting to remortgage or arrange a product transfer over the next 12 months, against 40% of landlords overall. The number of landlords now running their lettings business full-time has also risen, to 21% from 17% at the end of 2025, a sign that refinancing activity is concentrated among landlords treating property as a serious, scaling business rather than a side income.

Source: Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends Survey, as reported by Mortgage Strategy, Mortgage Solutions and The Intermediary, August 2026.

What does this mean for landlords across Huntingdonshire?

We see the same pattern with portfolio landlords letting through Huntingdon, Brampton, Godmanchester and St Ives: landlords with three or more properties are the ones actively reviewing every fix as it approaches its end, usually through a broker rather than going direct, since two-thirds of landlords overall arranged their most recent buy-to-let mortgage through a broker, rising to three-quarters among portfolio landlords. A single-property landlord with one fix ending next spring has less urgency, but the same logic still applies: waiting for a deal to lapse onto a lender's standard variable rate is now the exception, not the norm.

What should landlords with a fix ending soon do now?

Landlords letting through Huntingdon or Brampton who want a second opinion on a refinancing decision are welcome to talk it through with us alongside a broker; we see the local rental market day to day and can flag where a property's condition or paperwork might slow an application down.

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