Buy to Let (BTL) landlords have had a pretty tough few years, The Mortgage Lender's research among landlords has revealed one has even endured a tenant that set up a manufacturing business from their rented home.

Away from the individual stories stamp duty changes have made high value, lower yielding properties in London and the South East lessattractive and the tapering abolition of mortgage interest rate relief has eaten into profits on leveraged portfolios.

Added to the tax changes more stringent underwriting criteria and a ban on passing on letting agent fees to tenants have added to landlord woes. It’s therefore not surprising the latest figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show around 3,800 BTL properties are being sold every month.

The icing on the cake for BTL landlords is Brexit uncertainty and the latest dictate from the Government over S21 notices that is likely to makeit harder for landlords to evict tenants.

But as difficult a journey as it has been for some landlords the Government objectives of making BTL more professional and less profitable at the same time as giving first time buyers more of a chance to get on the housing ladder – has worked – in London at least. The number of London-based landlords buying in the capital has fallen by 31 per cent since 2010. Instead they are buying in the North and Midlands where prices are lower and yields higher.

Research from Hamptons International shows that in 2015 16 per cent of first-time buyers in London were facing competition from an investor,this has now dropped to 11 per cent. Instead towns like Colchester, Stockport and Manchester are now regarded as the BTL hotspots with yields of up to 5.29 per cent compared to just 2.84 per cent in East Central London.

Despite all of these changes landlords remain resilient. The research shows 84 per cent are planning to maintain or increase the number ofproperties in their portfolio over the next 12 months and just 16 per cent are looking to sell. And it isn’t tax changes, market conditions or Brexit that is keeping landlords awake at night, it’s the cost of maintaining their properties, how tenants are treating their homes, or their behaviour in general.

Surprising in an environment where the Government is asking more and more of the private landlord.In the report Buy to Let: the landlord experience, they take a look at the market, the influences and impacts on the sector and delve into the details that matter to landlords.

Check out the report here.