The bruising that this news will administer to already fragile buyer and lender confidence will mean that the robust rental sector evident in some parts of the UK will continue to flourish.

We’ve certainly seen this in the South East. It’s not hard to understand at first glance that dire economic news might translate into good tidings for buy-to-let investors – if they can get the borrowing.

Lenders are showing more confidence in rental yields and lack of rental voids than they are in the residential market.

However, rates will have to rise at some point and injudicious lending decisions now might be rued again later.

Landlord affordability has yet to be tested, because of the historic lows of interest rates. A rise of just 2% over the next 18 months may be enough to cause havoc among overstretched landlords.

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Of course, there are alot of reasons why the Bank of England will resist putting rates up.

Its new (if undisclosed) mandate for economic stability, as well as inflation management, will mean it is loathe to move and derail what fragile growth might be on the cards in 2011. Politicians, too, will be acutely aware that a private sector struggling with debt will not step in to pick up the slack of public sector cuts. Equally, a little inflation will help erode sovereign debt.

So, in the meantime, the drop in growth may encourage more landlords and lenders to try to extend rental portfolios.

It is by no means the start of a bubble, but when rates rise we might yet see casualties.

Robin Johnson is managing director of Kinleigh, Folkard &Hayward Chartered Surveyors