According to figures recently released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the number of properties purchased with buy to let mortgages rose by around 84,000 last year, helping to increase the supply of privately rented homes. During the last quarter of 2011, 34,800 buy to let mortgages were approved, although 15,000 of these were remortgages. They have a total worth of £4 billion. These figures are almost the same as those seen in the third quarter, but are substantially up on the fourth quarter of 2010 when 26,300 loans were approved, worth £2.9 billion.

While this might seem like a relatively large sum of money, it pales when compared to the height of the market in the third quarter of 2007 when 93,000 loans were approved worth £12.7 billion. Although today's figures are much lower they are showing a gradual improvement as the market recovers from its lowest point in 2009. In the fourth quarter of last year by to let mortgages accounted for just under 13% of the total outstanding value of mortgages in the country. Buy to let mortgages also have a better track history for arrears, although the repossession rate is higher. This isn't particularly surprising as most lenders will try to accommodate homeowners wherever possible rather than repossessing the property whereas it's a slightly different situation in the buy to let sector. In such cases so long as the property has a proper buy to let mortgage than the tenancy is recognised by the lender so the tenants’ rights remain protected even if their landlord defaults on the mortgage.

Paul Smee, the director-general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders has commented on the latest data saying "Buy to let lending continues to perform well. Demand for rented property remained high so the rationale for buy to let remained strong." He went on to say that he didn't see any reason for this positive outlook to change.