According to a survey by the Property Investor Show (PIS), 70% of landlords are planning to purchase property this year despite 65% believing the country is heading for recession.

Landlords were asked where they expected to be purchasing property and 37% said in the UK, 25% abroad and 8% in both the UK and abroad.

With 70% of landlords believing that house prices are going to fall this year, it is unsurprising that over 65% of investors now believe that rental yields are a greater consideration than capital growth. In 2007 only 40% of landlords considered rental yields to be the greater consideration.

Nick Clark, managing director of the PIS, told PIN: “Buy-to-let investors already play a crucial role in the property market, meeting the high demand for rented accommodation from country’s substantial numbers of immigrants amongst others, as well as taking up the slack on social housing. Now, they are also providing for an increasing number of families and first time buyers who are choosing to wait until the market stabilises before buying. Landlords are meeting consumer demand and it is these serious investors who will underpin the housing market as it begins to recover.”

The PIS claim that the survey is the largest of its kind with 1,000 landlords responding to the questionnaire.