However, with demand for country lets booming, an investment in the countryside is looking attractive. “The urban rental market is spilling over into the country,” says Mary Ryan, of Property Vision. “I don’t mean just towns and villages with good transport links back to London, but rural, off-the-beaten track properties with not a Starbucks in sight.”

Ryan believes that investors looking for enhanced capital growth, rather than a return to knock your socks off, might consider diversifying into country property.

Catherine Manning, lettings director at Hamptons, reports a strong start to 2006 in country lets. “The value and volume of new lets are up, and total new business has risen by 7 per cent compared with the same period last year.”

Manning says that the greatest challenge to the regional lettings market is the shortage of properties. Demand is driven primarily by people who want to buy, but are either struggling to find their perfect property in the fiercely competitive country house market, or who feel they ought to try their hand at country living before making a commitment. “An increasing number of tenants are renting while trying to find the right property,” says Jane Russam, of Lane Fox’s Banbury office. “They tend to be families looking to rent a house with at least four bedrooms on a budget of £1,200 to £2,000 a month.”

More people are moving to be close to good schools, says Ros Healey, of Cluttons’ office in Arundel, West Sussex. “I would advise anyone considering investing in the country house market to buy a family house located within six miles of a reputable school.”

Ryan, at Property Vision, says that some urbanites fleeing to the country want the full rural experience. “They are not looking for a farmhouse cottage in the middle of nowhere that the tenant can lock up and leave after a year if they find that they and their kids don’t like the mud.”

Most country landlords are former owner-occupiers who have traded up. Adrian Geary, of Lane Fox’s Basingstoke office, says: “Buyers upsizing transfer their existing home to a buy-to-let mortgage and let it out, thus becoming unencumbered buyers.” He adds that up to 40 per cent of buyers in that sector hold on to their former homes, creating a supply of houses to let.

However, that supply is going to have to grow if it is to meet demand. Ryan says: “People may not think of a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere as a good rental investment, but if the demand continues, then watch this space.”

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