By Tony Booth

This could be a period of golden opportunities for shrewd investors with cash to spare.

What began as a trickle has now turned into an avalanche.

Buy-to-let landlords are selling their investments in droves as they bail-out of the sector in favour of safer havens.

Some are disposing of properties out of choice, while others are being forced to do so, because rental income has fallen short of mortgage repayments - and there is another group in more dire circumstances whose properties are being repossessed by lenders now struggling from the sub-prime market whiplash.