21% of buy to let investors 'too embarrassed to admit what they do'

Some 21 per cent of buy to let investors are too embarrassed to admit what they do.

That is the result of a National Landlords Association poll of almost 800 residential property investors.

Across the UK, more landlords in the East of England and the East Midlands said they were embarrassed to admit it compared to any other region (29 per cent and 28 per cent respectively). At the other end of the scale, the English regions with the fewest embarrassed landlords were the South East and Yorkshire and Humber (18 per cent).

Just 13 per cent of landlords in Scotland said they had been too embarrassed to admit it before.

NLA member Richard Blanco, who lets property in London and the East Midlands, says he hasn’t always been truthful when it comes to admitting he’s a landlord: “Before becoming a landlord I thought long and hard about it because I had always disliked landlords as a student due to a bad experience I had over my deposit. These days I'm more upfront about it, but I tell people I work in property instead, because I still assume people won't like me if tell them what I do.”

NLA chief executive Richard Lambert says no matter how many landlords exist, the apparent stigma continues. 

“It’s the minority of rogues and criminal landlords that make the headlines, and this has a negative impact on everyone else. The majority of landlords are hardworking individuals who put their own money into providing homes for others, and they should not be ashamed to say so” he says.