The boss of a residential lettings firm with an office in Skipton says a new generation of older landlords is “almost stumbling” into private buy-to-let housing.

Dorian Gonsalves, pictured, chief executive of Belvoir, said the tend for older people to become landlords had grown over the past four years, with a third more in their 60s today.

He said: “I would say that the number has hit its highest level in the last year. At first we were surprised by the rising number of enquiries that we were processing on behalf of first time buy-to-let investors in their 60s. But the reasons they were giving have now become very familiar.”

The ‘silver fox’ generation was turning to the private rented sector as a source of income to boost retirement funds after a slump in pension values.

Some who had planned to sell up and retire somewhere else, but found their home was worth less than hey expected, were renting out their property and using the released equity as a deposit to buy or rent another one.

Others were staying put but taking advantage of the housing market slump to buy their own low-cost property for renting to tenants.