The Landbay survey found that a fifth of landlords were told to raise rent by their letting agent while 51 per cent cited mortgage payments.
For eight per cent of landlords, the cost of property maintenance influenced them to increase the rent.
Looking to the future, 71 per cent of landlords said they would increase the rent if their mortgage costs rose after remortgaging and 21 per cent were not sure if they would do this. Some eight per cent said higher mortgage costs alone would not encourage them to increase the rent.
For those who are considering putting the rent up, 65 per cent would increase this by a tenth. A fifth were unsure by how much they would increase the rent, 10 per cent said they would raise rents by more than 10 per cent.
Around 89 per cent of landlords in the South, excluding London, would raise the rent compared to 62 per cent in the North. For landlords in the Midlands, 78 per cent would increase the rent while in London, 65 per cent of landlords would do the same.
Rob Stanton (pictured), sales and distribution director at Landbay, said: “Higher mortgage rates when remortgaging is obviously a contributory factor to rent rises and is understandable as landlords need to cover their costs.
“For those landlords who haven’t or don’t intend to raise rent, it is generally because their mortgage costs are low or they have long standing and/or good tenants they want to keep.”
