The belief that buy to let investors are pricing first time buyers out of the housing market was dismissed by a leading expert in property economics at the recent ARLA Annual Conference.

Professor Michael Ball, Professor of Urban and Property Economics, University of Reading Business School, told delegates that there is only one way to lower house prices.

“It is to build more houses that people actually want to live in and in places where they want to live”

Professor Ball said that Buy to Let has substantially improved housing market stability and that without Buy to Let and a stable rental market, young households would be forced to enter owner-occupation earlier, at a more financially precarious time of their lives.