Landbay Puts a Case-Hardened BDM on the Scottish Patch

Landbay has named Daniel Bell as business development manager for North Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland, with immediate effect. He reports to sales and distribution director Rob Stanton and will cover the lender’s Premier, Core, Specialist and product-transfer ranges for brokers in those regions.

Bell joins from Harrogate master broker Newsource Commercial Finance, where he spent more than 13 years, most recently as head of broker relations. The hire lands seven months after Landbay opened its Premier buy-to-let range to every Scottish broker, and after it built a telephone sales team in July to carry cases from decision in principle through to offer.

Landbay Puts a Case Manager on the Scottish Patch

The appointment is a field hire, not a product launch. Stanton has spent 2026 adding bodies around the sales plan he already runs across field teams, telephone sales and national accounts, and Bell is the person now attached to a patch that includes a market Landbay only opened in March.

Bell will work with brokers and advisory firms across North Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. Landbay says his mix of case work and broker-network building will back its push to give intermediaries “knowledgeable and practical support” in those regions. The North East and Scotland BDM listing is already live on the lender’s intermediary site, under the name Dan Bell, with a direct phone line and email.

Stanton’s brief for the role is not a diary of branch visits. He wants BDMs to sit with the broker’s actual cases, then lean on a wider team to move the file.

We want our BDMs to spend time understanding brokers, their businesses and the cases they are working on, backed by a wider team that can provide support throughout the application process, and Daniel’s experience makes him a very strong fit for this approach.

Rob Stanton, sales and distribution director, Landbay

That line is the wager. A phone team can chase a pipeline. It cannot replace someone who has already packed HMO, MUFB, refurbishment and development files.

From a Standing Start to More Than 100 Brokers

Bell did not arrive from another lender’s BDM bench. He spent almost five years as a case and account manager at Newsource, running buy-to-let, houses in multiple occupation, multi-unit freehold blocks, refurbishment, development, semi-commercial and commercial cases, then moved up to head of broker relations.

In that later job he built the firm’s intermediary network from a standing start to more than 100 brokers and helped take the business through its sale. Leonard Curtis announced the acquisition of Newsource Commercial Finance on 21 October 2024, describing a Harrogate master broker with a team of five, led by joint managing directors Mark Craven and Brian Walters, that sourced residential buy-to-let, portfolios, commercial investment, development, refurbishment and bridging.

Leonard Curtis, a professional-services group with 300 people in 27 UK and Channel Islands offices, kept the Newsource name and folded the team into its funding division under Gary Cain. Two years on, the person who built that broker list is on a lender’s patch rather than a packager’s.

Bell put the same point in his own words. “I’ve spent my career working closely with brokers and helping them find solutions across a broad range of property finance cases, so I’m looking forward to bringing that experience to Landbay and getting out to meet advisers in my regions,” he said. “Having worked both on individual cases and in broker relations, I know how important it is for advisers to have a BDM who understands their business, is available when they need support and can help them find the right solution for their landlord clients.”

Why This Hire Follows a Phone Team

Landbay launched a dedicated telephone sales team on 15 July 2026, led by telephone sales manager Jon Braddick, to add capacity around communication, pipeline management and broker engagement. The unit was built to work with both brokers and field BDMs, taking files from decision in principle through to offer, and to call firms that had not placed business with the lender for some time.

Braddick has been at Landbay for more than six years. He joined as an account manager in 2020, became a BDM in 2022, and earlier held sales and account roles at Royal London and Aviva. Five telephone sales support staff joined with him, taking the new desk to six people, with backgrounds the lender listed as broking, telephone BDM work, underwriting and landlord servicing.

The July launch was framed as a complement to field and internal sales, not a substitute. Stanton’s October comments treat Bell as the next piece of the same spend: more capacity in the North and Scotland, with the phone desk behind the field person rather than instead of one. The hire has moved through the trade wires without a public argument about that split, even though the published territory is large enough that the phone team will have to do real work if visits are going to mean anything.

THE 2026 SALES BUILD

1. 16 March 2026: Opens the Premier buy-to-let range to every broker in Scotland after a phased start, at up to 75% loan to value.
2. 13 May 2026: Names Richard McRoberts, a former specialist buy-to-let broker, as BDM for Kent and the South Coast.
3. 8 June 2026: Appoints Joe Noon as regional account manager for Yorkshire, reporting to Ian Hall, head of sales for the North.
4. 15 July 2026: Launches the six-person telephone sales team under Jon Braddick.
5. 19 October 2026: Appoints Daniel Bell, with immediate effect, for North Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland.

Noon’s Yorkshire seat matters for the map. Landbay already had northern field cover when it hired Bell. What it did not have was a named BDM whose published patch includes Scotland.

Scotland Opened in March and the Field Cover Came in October

On 16 March 2026 Landbay said a successful phased start was over and its Premier range of 75% LTV products was open to the whole of the market in Scotland. Premier is the set for landlords with up to 15 mortgaged properties, available to individuals and limited-company borrowers, covering standard purchases, like-for-like remortgages, and remortgages with a free valuation or with a free valuation and cashback.

Stanton called Scotland a distinct market with its own legal framework and tenancy structures, and said the firm had taken time to match criteria, process and pricing to that. Brokers placing Scottish stock still have to clear a list that does not apply in England and Wales.

SCOTLAND RULES ON A LANDBAY FILE

• Landlord register: The property must be, or will be, listed on the official Scottish Landlord Register.
• Tenancy type: It must be let on a Short Assured Tenancy or a Private Residential Tenancy, the form set out in the Scottish Government’s private residential tenancy statutory terms.
• Tenure: Long lease or owned; freehold flats are allowed.
• Ex-local authority: Blocks above four storeys are allowed.
• Day-one remortgage: Excluded on the Scottish Premier criteria published at launch.

Private landlords in Scotland must apply to their local authority. Letting while unregistered is a criminal offence, and a registration runs for three years before it has to be renewed. That is the legal floor under Landbay’s “must be listed” rule, and it is one reason a BDM who can talk a file through, rather than a rate sheet alone, has a job in this market.

Landbay was not the only specialist lender putting a name on Scotland this year. Paragon Bank appointed Holly Morrison as BDM for Scotland on 25 June 2026, covering a long list of Scottish postcodes and reporting to its northern mortgage-sales manager. The territory is being staffed. Landbay’s version of that move arrived in October, attached to a man whose last job was building a broker network in Harrogate.

What Brokers Can Place on the Premier Range

Bell’s brief is the full Landbay menu in his regions: Premier, Core, Specialist and product transfers. The Scotland launch itself was Premier. On the lender’s live intermediary hub, Premier is still the set flagged for Scotland, England and Wales, for individuals and special-purpose vehicles with fewer than 15 mortgaged properties, including standard stock, HMOs, automated valuations, assisted legals and free valuations.

The Premier buy-to-let range for Scotland is published as two- and five-year fixes, up to 75% LTV, with rates from 4.04%. The same hub lists two-year trackers from 0.29% plus Bank Rate, product transfers from 4.14% up to 80% LTV, HMO from 4.94% up to 80% LTV, and MUFB from 4.94% up to 75% LTV.

HOW THE THREE SETS SPLIT

That split is the practical limit on the bet. Bell can talk Core and Specialist with northern brokers who have the stock. Scottish cases that fit the March launch are Premier files with extra legal tests. A BDM who has packed HMO and MUFB work is useful on both sides of that line. He cannot magic Core and Specialist onto the Scottish product card if they are not there.

Twenty-Eight Postcodes, One Named BDM

The announcement named three regions. The finder is more specific. Dan Bell is listed against 28 postcode areas: the Scottish set from Aberdeen, Dundee, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, the Highlands and Islands, Kilmarnock, Kirkwall, Kirkcaldy, Motherwell, Paisley, Perth, Galashiels and Lerwick, plus North East codes around Durham, Darlington, Newcastle, Sunderland and Teesside, and a northern English band that includes Harrogate, York, Leeds, Wakefield, Lancaster, Carlisle and Blackburn.

THE PATCH ON THE FINDER

• Job title: Business development manager, North East and Scotland.
• Regions in the announcement: North Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland.
• Postcode count: 28 areas, from the Western Isles and Shetland through to York.
• Reporting line: Rob Stanton, sales and distribution director.

Ian Hall remains head of sales for the North, with a North West-heavy list that includes Manchester, Liverpool, Chester and Belfast. Joe Noon covers a Yorkshire and East Midlands band that includes Bradford, Huddersfield, Hull, Sheffield and Nottingham. Bell’s Yorkshire codes sit beside Noon’s rather than on top of them. The new seat is Scotland plus the North East, with North Yorkshire in the mix because that is where Bell has just spent more than 13 years.

One person on that map is both the investment and the strain. Brokers in Edinburgh and Newcastle now have a named contact who has run specialist files. Brokers at the edge of the list will still need the July phone desk if the BDM is on the road in the other country.

The Field Time Stanton Says He Is Buying

Landbay works only through intermediaries. Stanton has been in UK buy-to-let since 2004, joined the lender in 2018 after 15 years at Paragon Bank in underwriting and regional management, and now sets the sales plan across field, telephone and national accounts. Bell is a bet that the Scottish Premier card, the northern specialist stock, and a BDM who has already built a 100-firm network will convert more files than a rate change on its own.

The other side of the same bet is time. Twenty-eight postcodes and a legal regime that still asks for the landlord register and a Private Residential Tenancy will eat a diary. The telephone team exists to take the DIP-to-offer grind off that diary. If that split holds, Scottish and northern brokers get a case-manager on the patch. If it does not, they get a well-credentialled name on a map that is too big for one car.

Bell said he wants to get out and meet advisers in his regions. The next test is whether those meetings are about HMO and MUFB structure, or about where the file has sat since the decision in principle.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Landbay start offering buy-to-let mortgages in Scotland?

Landbay opened a number of Premier products to the whole of the market on 16 March 2026, after a phased start. At launch, standard two-year fixes started from 3.14% with a 5% fee, with a zero-fee option at 5.64%, and remortgage cases could take a free valuation and £500 cashback on five-year fixes priced at 5.25%, with the fee set by maximum loan size. Day-one remortgage was excluded on that Scottish criteria list.

Who bought Newsource Commercial Finance, and when?

Leonard Curtis bought Newsource Commercial Finance Ltd on 21 October 2024. The Harrogate firm, led by Mark Craven and Brian Walters, kept trading under its own name beside Leonard Curtis’s funding team, and the joint managing directors described the deal as 12 years of work by the Newsource staff. Companies House records show Newsource was incorporated on 24 January 2013.

Do Scottish landlords have to join the landlord register for a Landbay case?

Landbay’s Scottish Premier criteria require the property to be, or to be going onto, the Scottish Landlord Register. Separately, almost all private landlords in Scotland must register with the local authority under Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, the register is maintained by Scotland’s 32 councils, and operating as an unregistered landlord is a criminal offence.

How do Landbay’s Premier, Core and Specialist ranges differ?

Premier is aimed at individuals and SPVs with under 15 mortgaged properties and is the range Landbay flags for Scotland as well as England and Wales. Core is built for larger portfolios, including LLPs and layered companies, and is listed up to 80% LTV. Specialist is the complex-property set, covering trading companies, HMOs, MUFBs and holiday lets. On the live hub, two-year trackers run from a £30,000 minimum to a £1.5 million maximum, while HMO and MUFB products start at a £75,000 minimum with maxima of £2 million and £1 million on trading-company stock.

What tenancy types does Landbay accept on Scottish Premier cases?

The March 2026 criteria require a Short Assured Tenancy or a Private Residential Tenancy. Tenure must be long lease or owned, freehold flats are allowed, and ex-local authority stock above four storeys is allowed, which is a different starting point from many English high-rise rules.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a lender’s sales appointment and related product criteria. It is for information only and is not mortgage, investment or financial advice, and it does not recommend any lender, rate or product. Anyone considering a buy-to-let mortgage should speak to a qualified mortgage adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and landlords in Scotland should confirm registration and tenancy rules with their local authority before acting. Rates, criteria, personnel and coverage on this page reflect the sources at the dates given and can change.