New research from the National Landlords Association (NLA) reveals that, for a huge majority of landlords, their decision to invest in residential property is not based on past house price increases and the expectation of further rises in the future.

In the largest survey of its kind, less than one in ten landlords (9%) said that rising prices were the ‘main reason’ for their decision to invest. 46% of them said that they were ‘a consideration’ while a similar proportion of 45% said that rising prices ‘had no influence at all’.

The NLA’s chairman, David Salusbury, said, "Our new survey illustrates that landlords are not principally motivated by capital gain on the value of their properties, in the way that a speculative investor would be. What matters to landlords first and foremost is finding good tenants who will look after their properties, stay for a reasonably long period and, of course, pay their rent on time."

For landlords, owning and letting property is a long-term business proposition rather than a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme where they can make a ‘quick turn’ on property values, argues David Salusbury. Their principal motivation is to provide decent homes to people who are often among the most vulnerable members of the community.

"As such, their number one priority is not whether they are making a paper gain on the value of the property, but rather whether they are receiving sufficient rent to cover their finance and day-to-day running costs," he said.

Asked whether they had been influenced by ‘excitement’ effect in the housing market (the so-called ‘bandwagon effect’), only 7% of landlords admitted that this was the case, with a further 13% ‘slightly agreeing’. Overall, 20% accepted that this was to some extent true, but well over twice that number (44%) denied that this was the case at all. A significant 14% strongly disagreed that landlords had jumped on the price ‘bandwagon’.

David Salusbury again: "The overriding message from this research is that serious landlords – as opposed to the speculators – are not driven by short-termist price considerations."

Landlords’ desire to attract and retain good quality tenants who will stay for a reasonable length of time is borne out by the typical length of the tenancies they are able to secure.