Buy to let investing has been at the centre of attention for a while now. For many home owners buy to let investments were seen as a good way to expand one's property portfolio while letting somebody else pay for the mortgage. However, since the credit crunch the situation turned rather bleak for buy to let investors as both property values began to fall and many mortgage companies closed their doors to this type of investment. To make matters worse a whole host of potential sellers became accidental landlords as they did not want to sell their home at the time. This had a tremendous impact on rents as supply began to outstrip demand.

However, according to the latest report by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, there seems to be a sustained recovery within the market in the third quarter of 2010. They suggest that the reason for this has been a boost in the demand for rental property. Investment landlords were advanced in the region of £2.8b in Q3, which represents over a 30% rise during the same period last year. Research conducted by property services group LSL mirrored these findings as they suggested that rents have continually increased for the 8th consecutive month in September.

Despite the good news it is probably best if buy to let investors do not get to ahead of themselves as the market is no where near pre-crisis levels. In addition, the upward trend may signal another major issue that is potential buyers not being able to get into the market and therefore are having to rent for longer periods than they would of hoped for.