According to Paragon Mortgages’ quarterly Trends Survey, the majority of landlords (67%) claimed that they are not looking to buy or sell in the current market.

The survey found that 14% of investors were looking to add to their portfolio over the next year. Of those looking to buy 71.4% stated that the fall in house prices had been the major incentive in looking to expand. Paragon believes that now is a good time for landlords to ‘tweak’ their portfolio, disposing of properties which are not performing well and picking up others at a reduced rate. Landlords said that the biggest contributing factor as to whether they bought a new property was high levels of tenant demand, this was followed by rising rents.

John Heron, managing director of Paragon Mortgages, told PIN: “Whilst our own data is telling us that some landlords are increasingly viewing current market conditions as an opportunity to snap up properties at bargain prices, it is no surprise that most are biding their time, looking after their existing portfolio and waiting for some signal that the property market has leveled off. Timing on this will vary with location and sector as well as at an individual property level.”