Yet other landlords are not so lucky with many reporting rental properties lying empty for months as rents plummet to levels of 20 per cent less than a year ago. The buy-to-let market is a confusing picture and recent reports suggest some fledgling landlords are already selling before things get worse. Moneynetmortgagesearches Robbie Williams’s former flat in London’s Notting Hill has netted its current owner a tidy £1,500 a week within days of coming on to the market. “I got a lump sum and had every intention of buying maybe one, and initially even two, properties to rent out but I still haven’t been brave enough to do it,” she says. Ms Sutton has watched London property prices rise around 19 per cent over the past year, putting paid to the idea of buying one, let alone two, flats.Some experienced landlords are taking advantage of the current situation. “There are many landlords with 10 or more properties and as soon as they see some landlords selling they start buying. They’ve got long-term prospects in mind and they know that they can borrow cheaply,” says John Rockel, director of lettings and management at Hamptons International He adds: “Be careful about what you buy.

It’s a five- to 10-year investment and it’s still a fantastic one but as we’ve always said you must have reserve funds to cover any void periods or if the boiler breaks down.”Hamptons’ May figures suggest rental stock levels are continuing to rise, up 9 per cent over April, and in central London, up by 66 per cent compared to last year, but rent levels are down, particularly at the top end. Mr Rockel is advising some landlords to sell their two-bedroom properties and buy two one-bedroom flats. Undoubtedly the top end of the market has been hardest hit; the effects of 11 September are still lingering, although American corporate tenants are returning. American tenants, who used to form 25 per cent of the market, are back up to 20 per cent after falling to 12 per cent at the end of last year although reduced corporate budgets are being blamed for falling rent levels.Many agents believe strong capital growth is more important.

“If I were a landlord I’d rather have high capital growth and low rent than the other way around but for some it’s the right time to sell, for others it’s time to buy or hold and it depends entirely on your circumstances,” he says.Most buy-to-let investors are still cautious, it seems. The Association of Residential Letting Agents’ recent bulletin shows the average buy-to-let loan is now just £80,200; in 1999 it was £69,400.Hugh McIntosh has been buying rental properties in London’s Pimlico since 1994, which he lets through Hamptons. He says that despite “fewer tenants and a glut of properties”, buy-to-let is still extremely profitable but only in the long term and for those who do their homework thoroughly.Chard’s Barry Manners, who rented Robbie Williams’s flat, agrees but warns would-be landlords not to be deterred by “doom-and-gloom merchants”, putting the blame firmly at the feet of estate agents who mislead naive buyers by selling them properties that are unsuitable for renting. “I had a classic example of a chap who’d bought a family house on an extremely busy road that no family is going to consider renting. If financial advisers misled people as badly they’d all be in prison,” he adds.Contacts: ; Chard 020 7348 1888.. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which represents nine out of 10 people in Britain’s occupational pension schemes, is about to swap kid gloves for boxing gloves. Although Christine Farnish became the association’s chief executive only this month, she has lost no time in setting up a think tank to set the Government a series of provocative challenges in the wake of the recent Sandler and Pickering reports on pensions and long-term savings.