Despite fears of a property crash, the number of buy-to-let landlords is reported to be set to double in the next three years.

In the survey carried out by the consultant Mintel, 900,000 people said they wanted to buy at least one rental property by 2010, despite the record property price rises of up to £300 in a day. They go on to predict that the buy-to-let boom as only just started. Many of those keen to get into the sector have seen their friends or family members make a fortune from letting and want a piece of the action.

Around 900 people per day took out a buy-to-let mortgage last year - the highest number in the industry's history according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) - even though the cost of the average home has risen from £60,000 to nearly £200,000. This boom has been credited to the huge tenant demand in the UK - if a landlord has a high interest from tenants in one property he/she is likely to want to invest in another.

Current rental figures state that one in ten people currently rent a property in the UK - and this number could also double in the next ten years. Many tenants are also "aspirational" and want to live in homes they could never afford to buy. It is wise to be cautious though, many people assume that owning a buy-to-let property means a guaranteed income but are too young to remember the effects of the price fall in the early nineties.

Many amateur investors are flooding the market according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and see their extra property as their pension - which is a dangerous assumption to make as if prices collapse, so could retirement plans.

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