Confidence returns to buy to let.

Confidence in the buy-to-let market is growing, and higher levels of professionalism are being practiced.

According to the latest quarterly survey carried out by buy-to-let mortgage lender CHL Mortgages, 81% of landlords now feel positive about buy to let, with many respondents indicating that the sector has shaken off its ‘get rich quick’ image and has once again become the preserve of sober professionals.

The survey asked landlords how they currently view the market, how they regard the future of buy to let, what their own intentions are and how they are coping with problems.

More than a third (38%) said they intended to buy more property in the near future. Only 13% said they have plans to sell a property, while the majority, 53 per cent, are content to sit tight with the properties they currently have.

Most respondents (59%) manage their properties themselves rather than using a letting agent, and considered their role as buy-to-let landlord as a profession rather than a hobby.

A third (34%) use a lettings agent to manage their properties.

The survey also recorded that for 71% of landlords the rental income from their properties is sufficient to cover all of their costs including the mortgage payments, management and maintenance fees, while 15% said the rent was only enough to cover the mortgage.

Only 6.1% said the rent was insufficient to cover their outgoings.

More than half (55%) had not experienced any rental voids in the last 12 months. But 28% have had a rental void in the last six months, and 17% in the last year.

Bob Young, managing director of CHL Mortgages, said:

"Our first quarterly survey of CHL landlord customers seems to show growing confidence in the buy-to-let sector and an overwhelming feeling that the market pain we have all felt over the last couple of years is starting to subside.

"In essence, the survey reveals that buy-to-let has gone back to its roots and is now a sector dominated again by professional landlords rather than the type of borrower we saw in the 'boom years' which were motivated by short-term ambitions as they attempted to make money quickly from property."