A new survey conducted on behalf of Paragon Mortgages and Mortgage Trust, which provides an insight into landlord behaviour, demographics and motivation, amongst other facts, reveals the following:

+ The average age of a buy-to-let investor in the UK is 49.

+ On average landlords have been involved in buy-to-let for ten years. The typical portfolio comprises 10.6 properties, and the average value of the portfolio is £1.69m.

+ The average loan to value ratio on buy-to-let portfolios is around 50%. Over 60% of investors have LTVs of between 26% and 75%, and only a very small percentage of 1.1% report LTVs of 86% or more.

John Heron, Paragon’s director of mortgages said: “Financially, landlords are cautious. They typically mortgage only half of the value of their property portfolio, and tend to use the equity in the portfolio to raise the deposit for new property acquisitions or otherwise draw this from savings. On average, they have a comfortable cushion in their ongoing finances, with rental income exceeding mortgage payments by 30% on average.”