Nottingham Building Society, the mortgages and savings mutual, has announced a series of updates to its BTL lending criteria – including an increase in its maximum BTL mortgage term to 40 years, up from the previous 35-year limit. 

The shift has been built to provide landlords with more flexibility when structuring borrowing, while also supporting a growing number of accidental landlords where longer terms can help manage affordability and repayment profiles. 

Alongside the extended mortgage term, Nottingham Building Society has refreshed its buy‑to‑let criteria to support affordability and access at a time when landlords across the market are navigating higher interest rates, changing portfolio dynamics, and evolving tenant needs. 

The updates are designed to provide brokers with greater flexibility across borrower type, portfolio structure, and property profile. This includes opening lending to first‑time landlord borrowers, enabling customers entering the rental market for the first time to build sustainable investments, as well as introducing more flexible lease length requirements where properties continue to meet the Society’s minimum end‑of‑term standards. 

Responsible lending standards

Nottingham Building Society has also refreshed its approach to portfolio coverage as part of a broader effort to support more consistent and transparent assessments of background portfolios, while maintaining its core buy‑to‑let affordability framework and responsible lending standards.  

These changes build on the mutual’s wider programme of lending enhancements introduced across 2026, focused on evolving criteria in practical ways to reflect how people borrow, earn, and invest today. 

Recent BTL-relevant updates have included expanding lending on ex‑local authority flats — supporting a sizeable and often under‑served segment of the UK housing stock — and updating its approach to concessionary purchase transactions, enabling private landlords to sell properties to existing tenants at a discounted price. 

Alongside this, the Society has continued to evolve its residential criteria to support a broader range of incomes and circumstances, reinforcing its commitment to responsible lending models rooted in real‑world borrower profiles rather than outdated assumptions. 

Matt Kingston, Sales Director at Nottingham Building Society, said: “The buy-to-let market continues to evolve, and landlords are operating in a very different environment to even a few years ago. Borrowing structures, portfolio management and the types of customers entering the market are all changing.”