Professional landlords could find themselves with less competition in the market in the coming year as accidental landlords sell up, it has been predicted.

The fall in prices that accompanied to housing market slump led to many people falling into the rental market, often with little knowledge of the market, requirements of a landlord or the need for buy to let insurance.

With property prices now back on the up, Alan Ward, chairman at the Residential Landlords Association, has now predicted a number of these accidental landlords will leave the sector, offering more opportunities for those which remain.

“Some people say there are 100,000 properties in that sector and, if that comes back on the market, then that is quite a big change,” he added.

David Whittaker, managing director at Mortgages for Business, also recently predicted greater buy-to-let lending in 2012, as the sector looked to re-establish ‘its status quo relationship with the residential mortgage market as a whole’.

He predicted that with residential mortgage approvals still soft going into 2012, buy to let is set to take a higher percentage.