Estate agent's bright outlook for buy-to-let
The buy-to-let sector in Scotland, far from being damaged by the credit crunch, has benefited from the tightening of loans criteria in the financial crisis.
With lenders raising minimum deposits and tightening their criteria for borrowers, estate agents Rettie & Co said that many first time buyers have been forced out of the market.
In turn, this has led to an increase in rental demand across the country - fertile ground for buy-to-let investors.
Diarmid Mackenzie Smith, lettings manager for Rettie & Co, said: "With the effects of the so-called 'credit crunch', first-time buyers will now come back into the rental sector which will explain the increase in rental demand and signs of rental increases that have recently been experienced.
"Over 95 per cent of the properties let by [Rettie & Co] in the first quarter of this calendar year are owned by investors."
A potential pitfall for investors - a plunge in property values - also appears to be a more remote possibility in Scotland than elsewhere.
According to figures from the Bank of Scotland, the annual rate of house price inflation for the final quarter of last year was 13.1 per cent - well above the national average of 5.2 per cent.
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