It may be beneficial to remortgage your
buy to let property before the new changes come in to effect..
It then goes on to say that buy to let is not buying holiday villas abroad or speculating with buying off-plan, nor is it a liquid investment or a gamble.
Recognising that it is important for investors to understand the opportunities and obligations that go with buy to let, the guide covers tenancy agreements, Tenancy Deposit Protection, insurance, legal requirements and tax.
The landlords were asked to describe how they perceived that other investor landlords of their acquaintance have done in the Buy to Let market.
A quarter of the landlords of their acquaintance were only just starting out as Buy to Let investors.
He added: "Buy to let has increased the size of the private rented sector and extended the alternatives to both owner occupation and social housing.
As a result, Prof Ball said that it was not clear that house prices would have been lower without buy to let, as housing demand was still with us but supply was likely to have been less.
Today more than a million households live in Buy to Let properties.
Presenting his report for ARLA to an audience from Government, the City and the property industry, Michael Ball, Professor of Urban and Property Economics at the University of Reading Business School, forecast an average growth in numbers of Buy to Let tenancies of 20-30,000 a year over the next 10 years.
FPDSavills concluded, 'The so-called buy to let boom has been more a boom in finance than in new rented properties.'
Ray Boulger of Charcol said, 'Whereas a decade ago, the margin between buy to let and residential mortgages was considerable, in some cases it is now less than a quarter-per-cent.
The 224-page guide, published this week under the auspices of the Association of Residential Letting Agents and the Council of Mortgage Lenders, gives a complete overview of
buy to let.
The main factors that would encourage
Buy to Let landlords to expand their portfolio were stable, low interest rates (cited by 56 per cent), steady or rising house prices (46 per cent) and good rental yields (44 per cent).
The ARLA panel of lenders, Birmingham Midshires, GMAC Residential Funding, NatWest Mortgage Services, Paragon Mortgages and The Mortgage Business, represent some 40 per cent of all
Buy to Let mortgage lending.
Robert Jordan added: "Super house inflation has brought about a secondary market that purports to be
Buy to Let and probably uses mortgages from some lenders to fund these activities.