A major high street lender has changed the terms and conditions of its mortgages to enable landlords to rent their properties out on short-term and holiday let sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com during void periods.

The move by NatWest is a consequence of its new ‘Consent to Let’ policy on mortgages, which is primarily designed to help owner-occupiers generate cash from short-lets platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com without having to seek permission.

NatWest is at pains to point out that the new terms for its homeowner mortgages are entirely separate from the bank’s buy-to-let range, but says “if you have a buy-to-let property, you may use short-term lets to cover rental void periods”.

Conset to Let

For those who are not landlords, the bank’s ‘Consent to Let’ enables them to rent out their homes without seeking permission only if they agree to an occupation under licence and not a tenancy agreement, that the property can only be rented out for 90 days each year, and that local planning or licencing rules are not being broken.

Those who have bought their homes via Help to Buy or Shared Ownership schemes are excluded and also flats in blocks where the head leasehold bars short-lets are not covered either.

It is also positioning the change as a way for those struggling financially to pay their mortgages.

Lloyd Cochrane, Head of Mortgages at NatWest, says: “We want to support our customers by widening their options through our proposition, including sharing their homes through sites such as Airbnb.

“By updating our policy, this will offer more flexibility and allow more people to take up the benefits of home sharing.”

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