Private landlords can thank search giant Google for trying to drive down the cost of buy to let mortgages.

The search engine has just launched a comparison site for mortgages that includes hundreds of landlord loans.

The deals include a wide range of direct-to-lender and broker-only mortgages and remortgages.

But lenders who want to join the comparison site must cap the arrangement fees at no more than 1% of the amount advanced, which is considerably cheaper than many buy to let mortgage deals on the market.

For example, one best buy tracker from The Principality is quoting a 2.5% arrangement fee outside Google.

The site has more than 600 buy to let mortgages and remortgages listed – more than most other comparison services.

Google also offers a link to a dozen or so selected brokers who pay for leads, including the Which? Mortgage Service.

A link to the mortgage comparison service heads any search for mortgage related keywords on the search engine.

Google also qualms fears of personal and financial details being held online by promising to only collect enough data for a broker to contact a landlord.

“We will ask enough questions to allow the user to get meaningful search results,” the company said.

Google decided to close another mortgage comparison service after failing to make a dent in the market following the acquisition of financial services comparison engine Beat My Quote, but pledges Google Mortgages is here to stay.

John Paleomylites, a product director at Google, said: “Over the last few months we have launched new comparison services for credit cards, current and savings accounts and car insurance. We are now adding mortgages to our comparison family, making it easier for customers to find the best deal for their individual circumstances.”

Click here to try out the Google buy to let mortgage service [Opens in new window]