Future millionaires were abandoned by the thousand by both mortgage lenders and the property courses that had previously filled their heads full of dreams. While buy-to-let mortgage products were disappearing from the lenders' best buy tables the various courses and companies operated by the so-called property gurus were disappearing from the property investment game. Anyone who had stumped up several thousand pounds for an “education” and had exchanged contracts on off-plan investment property was left wondering how they were supposed to finance the completion of their nest egg investments.



With the property market in freefall and the mortgage market shrinking rapidly stories began to emerge of ordinary individuals who had staked their entire personal worth on city centre apartments and holiday homes in Spain who had lost everything. Hard working, tax-paying, law abiding citizens who took the buy-to-let dream hook, line, and sinker were ruined overnight as the credit market contracted at a rate never seen before. While the headlines were awash with stories of investment banks facing ruin little thought was spared for the real victims of the property market crash – the amateur individual investors who could no longer afford to complete on their buy-to-let properties.

Those that could complete were then faced with the prospect of renting out their properties in a market that was ultra-competitive. Many property gurus failed to mention in their lectures that those who purchased the investment properties which were being flogged to the course delegates at inflated prices would be competing with hundreds of other landlords for tenants. Those who did manage to complete on their city centre apartments, for example, then faced the prospect of receiving far less rent than they were previously told they would.

The result – the amateur investors who had put their life savings into buying the apartment would be forced to pay the shortfall between the rent received each month and the amount due to the lender via the mortgage repayments. For many workers with low paying jobs this meant financial hardship for many years to come. Why couldn't they simply sell the property to rid themselves of the financial burden? Because the development likely had many unsold properties to offload at a much cheaper price due to the investors who were unable to complete on their properties as they could no longer secure buy-to-let mortgage products. It is unlikely that the individual property owners would be able to compete with the desperate developers.

All in all, by the time 2007 was assigned to history, the buy-to-let property market was seemingly a mess. With such a large retraction in the finance market and so many developments left unsold it appeared as though investing in property was no longer a safe bet. But was this the whole truth? Were all landlords feeling the pain or were there still plenty of success stories out there?

The truth is that of course there were landlords who were still achieving success. Although the property market was experiencing a major correction in terms of prices and the mortgage market was retracting like never before, landlords with solid portfolios were reaping the benefits of a strong rental market.