Landlords 'intend to invest in residential property market'

A new survey has revealed that ten per cent of landlords want to expand their property portfolio in the first three months of 2010.

According to the research carried out by Paragon Mortgages, 65 per cent of respondents stated that they would look at buying terraced property, which was the most popular option among buy-to-let landlords.

This was followed by semi-detached houses, which are on the list for 25 per cent of investors.

John Heron, managing director at Paragon Mortgages, commented: "It is encouraging that landlords are still active in the market and are looking to expand their portfolios."

However, he cautioned that the lack of competition in the buy-to-let mortgage market is causing problems for some investors.

More than two-thirds (67 per cent) of those who applied for a loan to extend their portfolio or remortgage claimed that it was more difficult to secure a deal in the final quarter of 2009, compared with the previous three months.

On January 18th, moneysupermarket.com revealed that the UK mortgage market has improved with 2,500 products on offer for the first time since May 11th 2009.