One of the recurring themes and hot topics currently within all the doom and gloom of the credit crunch that we hear: "is now a good time for further investment or to expand portfolios". However there have invariably also been casualties with the number of buy-to-let failures doubling re: our post from August 08 'Buy to let failures double' . This has also been compounded by a growing number of private tenants in the UK falling behind with their rent, AXA had commissioned a survey by YouGov Plc on its behalf, the report confirmed that 7 percent of private tenants had slipped into arrears in the previous three months, just over half the number that had done so in the preceeding 12 months. The YouGov poll was carried out online on July 22 to 30 2008. The sample size was 8,372 adults, of which 1,046 rented from a private landlord.

The above portfolio issue has also brought about the likes of wealthy investors seeking out portfolio landlords in danger of having their portfolios repossessed via an intermediary advisory group. The investors put up capital to assist portfolio's of between £5m to £30m. Under such "partnership-agreements", the buy-to-let landlord would retain ownership of the property, but the investor would receive any return up to a stated threshold. The original owner, however, would have the chance to benefit if rental yields on the property exceeded the threshold laid out in the contract. The doom and gloom further pervades as per our recent post 'UK rental falls for first time since 2003' . Landlords have also had to have in place an Energy Performance Certificate since October 1st. All this while lenders such as Capital Home Loans look set to lose 70 employees (otherwise 40 per cent of its 175 staff) and Paragon report a 43% fall in annual pre-tax profits to £53.7m, while also reducing new lending by 75% to £1.13bn in the year to 30 September after its funding costs soared. The words 'negative equity' also seem to be creeping back into the financial vocabulary. So the writing on the wall may well suggest that we should be battening down the hatches.

But there is a saying that many entrepreneurs have embraced and that is "don’t panic when others are panicking; buy when others are selling" although this was a quote from Warren Buffet and was in relation to equities the same rule of thumb may well apply to property. Property prices have fallen to arguably 2005 levels and while buy to let products remain thin on the ground loan to values available are currently levelling out to 75%. The recent cut in bank base rate to 3% has brought massive relief to many landlords on trackers, discounted and variable rates, while those on Libor will be seeing the benefits soon. With not much liquidity available there is also the option of distressed property but this does present a moral and ethical grey area. On 15th October, the Office of Fair Trading issued a report into the sale and rentback sector which recommended statutory regulation. A Treasury statement on October 22 confirmed that the Government accepted the OFT's proposals and outlined that a consultation paper on the findings will be published. Typically these properties are available with a ready made tenant and requiring little or no deposit. The bone of contention was that although hard pressed homeowners were seen to be exploited on the one hand there was also the threat of repossession from the lender. With the lender able to pursue the home owner for a period of six years for any shortfall under the right of subrogation. Therefore opportunities still exist for investors with or without deposits and encouraged by a possible further 1 basis point cut, those subscribed to First Mortgage Trust's newsletter will receive regular opportunities and bulletins along with a free PDF 'blogger' download which is continually updated.