90 per cent of professional landlords say that despite an increase in the availability of ‘normal’ mortgages, it is becoming even harder to source buy-to-let mortgage finance.

Paragon’s Trends research, a panel-based survey of UK landlords, over half (54 per cent) have attempted to obtain a buy-to-let mortgage in the three months to the end of August for either remortgage or new purchase purposes.

Nine out of 10 stated that it was more difficult to secure a buy-to-let mortgage than in the previous three months. Nearly one in ten (8.4 per cent) said that they had noticed no change in buy-to-let mortgage availability over the period. Landlord mortgages dry up 196 buy-to-let products were available at the end of August (a 94.4 per cent less than August 2007), compared to 218 in May. This compares to 1,329 prime residential mortgage products available in August (86.1 per cent less than August 2007), against 1,266 in May.

John Heron, Paragon Mortgages’ MD, says, "Buy-to-let lending has slumped and there is a real danger that the private rented sector could start to contract, particularly if the ‘accidental landlord’ begins to sell property. This would be disastrous for those sectors of the population that rely on the private rented sector for their housing needs."