Across the second half of 2013 confidence among landlords has hit at a record high, a report by Paragon Mortgages has shown. It had fallen to an all-time low between 2008 and 2009 before remaining flat until 2012, the lender said.

Now 38% of landlords felt optimistic about the future of the market with more than one-in-five planning to purchase more properties in the first quarter of next year. These plans for expansion were mainly limited to large-scale landlords rather than amateur or small investors.

Across all sectors of the market around a third of respondents said they expected to see their properties increase in value over the next 12 months.

John Heron, director of mortgages, said he expected buy-to-let lending this year to top £20bn and said there was still room for the market to grow.

“2013 has been a good year for buy-to-let and landlords certainly seem to be more active in the market. We have seen a steady increase in the levels of optimism among our landlord customers, and this looks set to stay in the New Year.

“We expect buy-to-let lending market wide in 2013 to be in the region of £20 billion and whilst this would represent a material level of growth over 2012 we should keep things in perspective.

“This only takes us back to the level of buy-to-let lending that we had ten years ago and over that period the private rented sector has increased by 80%. Any talk of boom conditions in the buy-to-let market would appear to be premature indeed.”