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The soaring rental market should mean that landlords are cashing in. The reality, however, shows considerable variation nationwide. While rents have increased in London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Leeds in the past year, Manchester and Birmingham have had notable falls - partly due to the oversupply of new-build flats in those two cities. After eight years of buy-to-let ease, landlords nationwide have been hit by increased borrowing costs; those coming off fixed-rate mortgages will undoubtedly experience a decrease in profits.

At present, rental demand is still high, up 41 per cent in a year nationwide, according to the lettings agent Your Move, which measures the number of leases commencing each month. Gumtree, the classifieds website that includes rental properties, reports that 71 per cent of the tenants it surveyed do not intend to take out a mortgage and will continue to rent. It also found that 60 per cent of mortgage holders would sell their homes and begin renting if mortgage repayments became too high.

Michael Holmes, a property consultant, says that attitudes to renting are changing. “Until now renting has been a dirty word, with people seeing it as money down the drain. Now mortgage rationing will push us into a more continental approach to the property market, in which the majority rents.” David Newnes, the managing director of Your Move, predicts: “Buy-to-let will grow this year. Opportunities to invest are ripe for professional landlords who can secure financing.” The story may be quite different, however, for those landlords who have stretched their finances to expand their portfolios, particularly those who have entered the buy-to-let game in the past two years.

The most recent additions to the landlord class are quite the opposite of the buy-to-let player: this breed are letting out their homes under financial duress. Cluttons has found the reluctant landlord to be unrealistic about rental expectations and uneducated about tenants' rights. They commonly opt for void periods rather than cut the rent, which is considered the height of bad practice among savvy landlords.

Belvoir Lettings notes that these first-timers, usually the owners of decent sized houses, remain emotionally attached to their properties. One owner of a home with a pool insisted on cleaning the pool himself after the new tenants had moved in.

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