NEW rental rules are making it harder for people to become landlords, studies show.

Almost two thirds say it is now harder to secure a loan to buy a property.

The changes introduced a year ago by the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) saw lenders applying an interest cover ratio (ICR) of 5.5 per cent to all products with terms of less than five years.

This included more stringent stress tests for all buy-to-let mortgages, with monthly rental income typically needing to cover 125 per cent of mortgage repayments.

According to the National Landlords Association’s (NLA) latest research, 63 per cent of landlords aware of the changes believe it makes obtaining new buy to let mortgages more difficult.

This increases to 70 per cent for portfolio landlords with four or more buy to let mortgages.

“These findings show that the PRA’s changes seem to be greatly affecting the ability of landlords to find new finance and increase their portfolios,” said Richard Lambert, chief executive officer of the NLA.

“Given that the private rented sector now makes up 20 per cent of the housing market, it is vital that professional landlords are incentivised to continue providing good quality affordable housing to those who need it. This appears to be achieving quite the reverse.”

Landlords with four or more buy to let mortgages are now required to undergo specialist underwriting processes when seeking new loans.

These include even more affordability tests and providing supporting documentation, such as business plans.