Despite all the doom and gloom in the housing market the current market is now an ideal time to invest in buy to let property. The key conditions that make this such a good market for investment are strong tenant demand, rising rental prices, low interest rates and reduced property prices.

The Findaproperty.com rental index reported that the average monthly rent in the UK rose to its highest level in the second quarter of 2011. This increase is consistent with LSL Property Services who claimed rents rose 0.7% during June.  This surge in rental prices is seen as a direct result of tenant demand for rental property. The increase in demand is largely due to first time buyers unable to save the 10% deposits being demanded by mortgage companies.

There are many bargain properties on the market owing to the drop in prices and the increase of repossessed property. Furthermore the interest rates remain low keeping the cost of borrowing down. Of course this has been the case for two or three years but previously there was a shortage of buy to let mortgages on the market preventing many investors taking advantage of the bargains. However there are now almost 500 different buy to let mortgages available. Not surprisingly there was a 25% increase in the number of buy to let mortgages taken out during the first quarter of 2011. This trend looks set to continue while these market conditions remain.