THE reaction of buy-to-let investors to the market slowdown is a subject on which almost everyone has an opinion, usually pessmistic.

But many of these views are based on the assumption that there is only one such kind of investor. This is someone who remortgaged his own home to take a gamble on a second property, without regard to the requirements of tenants who like a neutral decor and who want to be close to public transport. Buckling under the burden of higher interest rates, he now wants to sell – at any price.

However, while this may be an accurate description of some of those who ventured into buy-to-let, there are many others who see their second property as a long-term commitment. They also guessed that potential tenants would need to travel easily to their employment to pay their rent and were suckers for any Dulux neutral shade (Mellow Mocha, Perfectly Taupe and all the rest). Many of these investors are under no pressure to sell, as they are enjoying rising rents, a situation that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors forecasts could last into 2008. RICS even suspects that many will use the equity in their properties to add to their portfolios. This forecast indicates that buy-to-let activity will continue to be some support to the market – the opposite of the scenario envisaged by the gloom-mongers.

But RICS has done some sums that suggest that, in the future, buy-to-let will be a business on the side for rather fewer people. The new cautiousness of lenders means that aspiring amateur landlords will now need to find a deposit of 30 per cent of a property’s value – an average of £65,600. Five years ago, when lenders were less circumspect, the typical deposit was just 8 per cent – £10,100. No wonder that buy-to-let was seen as seen as a one-way bet.

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SCREEN BEAUTIES

The cooling of the market poses a challenge to that sizeable group for whom property is a passion, bordering on an obsession. Some are redirecting the energy they usually devote to their favourite pastime of viewing candidates for their next dream home into ambitious improvements of their existing home.

But, for some, a grand domestic redesign that should bolster the value of their home in a slow market is not sufficient outlet for their real estate obsession. They are finding solace, however, in the handsome homes featuring in the recent rash of swish TV dramas. One of the stars of ITV’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s Room With A View was the rambling Edwardian residence of Lucy Honeychurch, the heroine. A privately-owned Lutyens house in Puttenham, Surrey, took this role. Opinions were divided this week among those who thought this the ideal house and others who argued for the elegant Central London mansion that featured in BBC1’s Joe’s Palace, the Stephen Poliakoff drama that also screened last Sunday night.

Two properties played this key part: the exterior of a house in Mayfair’s Hill Street and the Grade II listed Langley Park House in rather less grand Uxbridge, in which the interiors were filmed. This Georgian pile, soon to be an hotel, changed hands for £2.4 million in 2004. The two properties will reprise their role in Capturing Mary, another Poliakoff drama that airs on Monday.

Sold, a series that starts next Thursday on ITV, could provide a salutory reminder that property purchase can be anything but pleasant. Anthony Head stars as Mr Colubrine, the serpent-like boss of a venal estate agency. But the firm employs Matt, an agent with a heart who believes that a dream home can be the route to happiness and that houses are for nesting, not investing. A hero for our times, perhaps?

WHO NEEDS GARDENS ANYWAY?

Fear has yet to stalk the streets of Chelsea. But price growth in this and other Central London neighbourhoods slowed to just 0.3 per cent last month, according to Knight Frank research.

Prices in the £1-£2 million sector are subsiding amid fears that job losses in the City will curtail the property-buying ambitions of its workforce. But residences in Knightsbridge and Notting Hill are forecast to remain a draw for overseas buyers. The new dominance of these rich migrants could have one side-effect: more interest in properties without a garden. Thirty and fortysomething investment bankers like a bit of green space to call their own. Overseas purchasers don’t dig the herbaceous border.

Charlie Findlater, of Friend & Falcke, the estate agent, says: “Many residents see a garden that requires maintenance as a positive disadvantage.” His firm is selling a mews house off Cadogan Square, below left, in Knightsbridge; access to the Cadogan Square gardens is included in the £3.95 millon price. Also pictured, below right, is a £950,000 two-bed flat in Tedworth Square, also for sale through Friend & Falcke. This property has views over the gardens of this square – conveniently looked after by somebody else. anne.ashworth@thetimes.co.uk

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