The British Property Federation's (BPF) call for further Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulation of the buy-to-let mortgage market has been described as "a limited view".
David Whittaker, managing director of industry experts Mortgages for Business, said the BPF has inferred that professional landlords are all funded by banks, which would mean they are suffering in the current economic downturn because of the activities of "one or two" lenders.
"A couple of lenders have got bad loans on their books, but if you take a specialist lender like Paragon - which only lends on buy-to-let - [its] mortgage book is cleaner than any of the banks by any measurement," he explained.
The BPF has made its comments without "following the substance" of the overall argument, Mr Whittaker continued.
His suggestions come after the BPF claimed that a crackdown on reckless lending was necessary so that the housing market can be refinanced.
At present buy-to-let mortgages are treated in a similar manner to business loans, in comparison to most other home loans, which are controlled by the FSA.
Written by Sarah Field
