By Tony Booth

Many recently built residential housing developments in and around major cities of the UK are becoming saturated with lettings with many being only 50 per cent let. This inevitably produces a situation of high competition and stagnating rents for landlords.

Long recurring voids are an investor landlord's worst nightmare and when it proves increasingly hard to find replacement tenants, there are, in reality, only three possible routes to resolving the problem.

1. SELL UP AND MOVE ON TO GREENER PASTURES

Obviously, this largely depends on whether the disadvantages of incurring costs and the uncertain period of time involved in disposing of one property and buying another, outweighs the advantages of investing in a more lucrative property with greater income generating potential.