It's a central question. Growth rates in the UK market are low and interest rates are on the rise - should you worry about positive cashflow?

It has been 10 years since the first buy to let mortgage came out, writes David Lawrenson.

In those early days getting a good deal was hard and rates tended to be quite a bit above the rates on residential mortgages.

At the start there were only a few lenders involved. For a long time many other lenders - including a lot of big high street names - stayed on the sidelines to see what happened, no doubt fearing that buy to let lending could only be done at low profit or with a high level of bad debt.

Well, their fears have proven unfounded - so far. Repossession rates are no worse than on standard residential mortgages and showing good profits, so nearly all the former bystanders now have a buy to let product offering of some sort.