Investors are still ploughing their cash into buy-to-let properties, it has been revealed.

Landlords use it as a longterm investment for future nest-eggs, according to a report by the Association of Residential Letting agents (ARLA).

The vast majority of investor landlords (88 per cent) expect to hold on to their properties for an average of 16 years, and nine out of ten say they will not sell even if house prices fall.

According to to the latest quarterly ARLA review to be published next Monday, the rate of return for buy-to-let investment was 11.8 per cent for property bought outright in the Midlands and 22.32 per cent for estates geared with a 75 per cent mortgage.

The national average was also 11.8 per cent for bought properties, but slightly less at 22.20 per cent for those with a mortgage.

Flats showed a slightly higher rate of return than houses in the Midlands with the gap wider on average throughout Britain.

Flats purchased outright in the Midlands yielded a return of 11.23 percent with 11.28 being the average, whilst houses gave a return of 11.14 per cent for the Midlands and 11.11 percent nationally.

For geared investments, the Midland returns was 22.45 per cent for flats and 22.21 per cent for houses. Again, the gap was wider on average nationally with 22.56 per cent for flats and 22.13 per cent for houses.

The results came from a national survey with input from more than 300 investment landlords and 500 letting agents.

It was supported by a wide range of lenders, including the ARLA panel of lenders, Birmingham Midshires, GMAC Residential Funding, Nat West mortgages, paragon Mortgages and The Mortgage Business.

The survey found that investors in buy-to-let are split fairly evenly between those who become residential landlords aiming to achieve both a rental income and capital appreciation (44 per cent) and those who invested to create a nest egg (47 per cent).

Just six per cent of landlords said they invest to gain an income and only 2.6 per cent were looking for a short-term capital gain.

Adrian Turner, of ARLA, said: "These figures showing the reasons why people invest in buy-to-let demonstrate the falsity of reports that claim investing in rental property is a bubble that is about to burst.

"Property investment, as with most investments that private individuals make, are considered judgements made with the long term in mind," he added.

To reiterate his point, it was reported that more than half of the landlords in the survey (55 per cent) expected to make further property investments in the coming year.

A quarter did not expect to acquire more investments while two out of ten were undecided.