As long as prices are falling demand for rented accommodation will hold up. But a rough ride on the way for landlords as the market bottoms, people start buying and demand for rented accommodation falls. Many BTL landlords will loose tenants and be forced to sell just as the market bottoms.

Etienne , london, uk

I have a friend who runs an estate agents he says
50% of the property for sale are BTL whats that telling you

Dave, Bristol,

We have a property market which is all about speculation and nothing about families.

We have the highest levels of societal dysfunction in Western Europe.

In my humble opinion, the two are not unconnected......

Mr Cameron's political integrity will stand or fall on how he handles this.

Rhys Jaggar, Leeds, UK

Anne Why do you have to keep trying to talk up the market. Wake up the market is crashing. Of course people like Paragon will always try to keep publishing statistics to support their business model. Our youth will be able to buy houses as prices crash by 50%

david, eastbourne,

Anne or her friends are surely not trying to sell their portfolios?
A declaration of interest in such articles would be useful

kenny, london,

Rents aren't going up here in Plymouth at all. There again I suppose when people refer to the 'South West' they think of chocolate box villages and quant seaside towns, not a Naval Base!

Brian Roberts , Plymouth, Devon

Utter nonsense. Some landlords with luck might keep rents flat, but all face steep increases in interest payments and falling capital value for their "investments." Hence their net returns (post maintenance, taxes etc) will be negative, possibly forever. Landlords: time to cut losses, sell now!

Peter, London,

Rents are going up? Only for the simple minded. Landlords are desperate for tenants to pay their mortgages. Always pay less than the asking price. Flatly refuse any rent rises. No one will turn down a paying tenant in this economic environment.

joe smith, london, england

Oh dear.

Do paragon by any chance rely on what their borrower's tell them for the rent figures? I suspect they do. Still if there is one thing sub-prime taught us it is that people never fib on mortgage applications. Oh, hang on...

Ian Bevan, London,

Anne, learn when to stop digging that hole! If you are going to make big claims at least back them with statisitics.If you can't then let me help,

> 15 sellers for every 1 buyer
> Prices dropping at fastest rate since 1992
> More BTL mortgages removed than FTB mortgages

What ones do you use?

Paul, Brighton,

I have to say that the research from Paragon appears to be self serving. The ONS tracks rental prices across the UK and their data shows that rents are keeping track with inflation.
Anecdotally - I rent and have seen no evidence of increasing rents.

roger, Tunbridge wells, UK

Spin doesn't work as houseprices.co.uk reveals exactly which properties have been snapped up. Take N12, for example, there were just four completions in March vs. 54 in March 2007.

Peter Vuorela, London,

Even if rents are up 20% that is only a 1% increase in rental yield (5% x 1.2 = 6%) and is probably more than offset by rising borowing costs.

With prices down 8%+ over the last year, the average landlord's equity is down a much bigger % than this.

How is that doing OK thank you?!

Paul, London,

My rent in the South West went up at CPI this year, so there must be a lot of fools around if the average increase is 29.2%!

P Davis is right - why are estate agents going under if there are so many of these landlords snapping up property?

The crash is happening - open your eyes.

I Wood, Bristol, England

Anne,
A few weeks ago you we're busy talking up the house price market. Clearly you've now moved on to talking BTL up. If the economy deteriorates, many people may lose their homes over misselling of huge volumes of BTL propeties.

And what would you know about being close to thirty?

Robert, Hull, UK

The die hard property believer still spinning the 'property is best' yarn eh? Let me ask the author, if the properties are being snapped up why are the estate agents complaining? Why are there more properties on the market than ever before? By the way my rent has remained the same!

P Davis, manchester,

Edwarde Sanspoisson, I am amazed that you find it funny that our youth cant afford to buy a simple property. Maybe you are one of those expats stuck in France that cant afford to return to our great nation

john, bath,

It all depends on where the property is located. Thus London will do better than the Outer Hebrides.

John, London, England

LOL. Just LOL.

Edwarde Sanspoisson, Montreuil Sur La Mer, France