Buy-to-let
The Bank asked the opinion of over 2,700 customers of its specialist lending arm Mortgage Express, the UKs largest buy-to-let lender.
The research also revealed that rental arrears have dropped from 26 per cent to 19 per cent and over half of landlords questioned said that they had no void periods in the past six months.
Of those that did, 30 per cent were pre-arranged in order to carry out repairs and renovation.
Andrew Moss, Bradford and Bingleys buy-to-let product manager, said: 83 per cent of landlords told us that they are planning to maintain or increase their portfolios. The outlook for tenants is positive too as confident landlords are investing in their properties.
More than a quarter of landlords invested over £2,000 maintaining their rental properties over the past year.
Landlords are choosing their properties carefully and buying in areas where tenant demand exists; 39 per cent stated that a thriving rental market is the main driver behind their purchase.
Moss said: Buy-to-let ranks high in the popularity stakes for investors. Landlords are benefiting from the continuing rise in property prices and rents mostly staying the same or increasing.
According to the survey, terraced houses are the most popular property for buy-to-let investors with 57 per cent already owning this type of property.
The average property value is between £100, 001 and £150, 000 and 50 per cent of property portfolios are now worth more than half a million pounds.
Moss said: Our research findings are clear, the buy-to-let market remains buoyant with high levels of confidence from landlords and sufficient demand from tenants to support this.
The Governments u-turn on holding residential property within SIPPs and the introduction of the Housing Act have seemingly had little effect on confidence in the market. Landlords are taking the changes in their stride and see bricks and mortar as a sound long term investment, for capital growth or to fund retirement.
