Buy-to-let home owners to double

The growing population has driven demand for rented homes

The number of buy-to-let home owners may double in the next three years, a report suggests.

Market research organisation Mintel says 3% of homeowners are thinking of buying another property to let to tenants by 2010.

That would roughly double the current number of private landlords in the UK, taking their number to about 2 million.

Mintel says the trend will be driven by continued growth of the population and the demand for rented accommodation.

"Increasingly, property owners are seeing the benefits of investing in bricks and mortar and often regard the second homes market as a good alternative means of saving for retirement," said Paul Davies of Mintel.

"As long as these trends continue, future growth in this market should be guaranteed," he added.

The new landlords

The modern revival of private landlordism started 10 years ago, when changes in landlord and tenant law gave landlords absolute certainty that they could regain possession of properties they had let out.

Industry figures show that the number of buy-to-let mortgages have soared over the past decade.

Last year another 330,000 buy-to-let mortgages were taken out, up from just 44,000 in 1999 when the market was still in its infancy.

At the end of last year there were 850,000 buy-to-let mortgages in existence, amounting to 9% of all mortgages.

Mintel predicts that by 2011, more than half a million people a year will be borrowing to become landlords.

Another factor lying behind this trend is disappointment with conventional pension savings.

According to Mintel's survey of some 2,000 adults, 68% of people with second homes believe their properties are better investments than pensions.

On the face of it, further rises in interest rates might be expected to undermine this confidence.

But only 10% of respondents in the survey said this prospect would put them off.