Inside Track Seminars, the firm that promised to show the public how they could quit their jobs and be property millionaires, went into administration this week. The company, which was set up in 2001, ran investment seminars for prospective buy-to-let investors who were encouraged to purchase property off-plan with the intention of “flipping”: selling the property before completion at a profit. The seminars cost about £2,500, while membership of Inside Track's “property club”, run by a sister company, cost a further £10,000.

Inside Track blames “continued and sustained difficulties arising from the credit crunch” for its demise. Tony McKay, the managing director, says: “The company has seen a fall in the number of people who want to invest in the property market, and that is understandable in the current climate.” However, some argue that the investment strategies it encouraged were doomed to failure. Jonathan Moore, of the specialist buy-to-let broker Mortgages for Business, says: “Investors who choose to part with large sums of money investing in property they haven't seen, in areas they do not know, and through third parties are likely to experience problems.” He says that its business model promoted investment in city centre newbuild apartments - the sector of the housing market that has seen the most pronounced downturn.

So does Inside Track's failure spell the beginning of the end for buy-to-let? Moore says not, pointing out that the buy-to-let market is dominated by established portfolio investors who tend to hold on to their portfolios. “Thirteen per cent of landlords own 74 per cent of the buy-to-let stock,” Moore says. “And even more striking is the fact that 53 per cent of landlords own just 3 per cent of the stock.”

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