Following the nationalisation of the mortgage business of Bradford and Bingley, there have been a number of media and financial commentators quick to support the view that buy-to-let as a concept has come off the rails which the National Landlords Association (NLA) has dismissed.

The NLA points out that it is highly unlikely that rental demand would reduce in a downturn as immigration continues to rise which pushes demand for rental accommodation; an increasingly mobile workforce is also a key factor; the student population is growing with over 2.5m students now in university education and, for the most part, requiring rental accommodation and lastly, there are more households owing to divorce, later marriage and other lifestyle factors which mean people are renting for longer.

Simon Gordon, NLA’s head of communication, said: “It is simply not true that the nation’s landlords are now facing some sort of crisis. For the cautious and mature investor who has bought in the right location, they will be seeing an increase in rents and can expect demand to keep climbing. This kind of market is not for the faint-hearted and the landlords who may be struggling may well be the more recent entrants with more highly-geared portfolios.”