A bank chief has used a national newspaper interview to make a stand in favour of buy to let landlords and private renting in general.

Nigel Terrington, chief executive of the Paragon Bank, has told the Sunday Times that it’s time to bust some myths about buy to let, which he describes as “an incredibly misunderstood product.”

He says that in only one year of the past 25 have buy to let mortgage arrears been greater than in the owner occupation sector, while insisting that the vast majority of professional and portfolio landlords have no intention of quitting the rental sector.

However he is not blind to the challenges facing all landlords and in particular small scale amateur ones.

He tells the paper’s Business section: “Everywhere landlords turn they hear they’re bad people and profiteers and they wait for the next bit of government to whack them over the heads. It doesn’t create a conducive environment with which to encourage investment.”

Terrington says landlords already face 168 pieces of legislation with the Renters Reform Bill likely to add more.

There is also an intriguing paragraph which reads: “Terrington reveals he is working on ways of helping long standing professionals who want to retire from their investments to leave the market.”

You can read the whole article here although for some readers it may be behind a pay wall.