It seems that the buy to let boom is progressing strongly and landlords are shrugging off low rental yields as a temporary phenomenon, confident in the belief that rents will grow in the long term along with capital gains, writes David Lawrenson.

For the first time, the number of buy to let mortgages taken out is now almost as high as the number of mortgages taken out by first time buyers.

According to figures from the Council of Mortgage lenders there were 333,000 buy to let mortgages in 2006 - just over 10% of all lending - which is only just short of the 350,000 mortgages taken out by first time buyers that same year.

The speed of growth in the buy to let mortgage market has been frenetic, albeit starting from a low base and last year saw an almost 50% increase on 2005.

In 1998 there were just 28,000 buy to let mortgage loans outstanding whereas the total now is 850,000 worth just under £100bn.