Landlords bought more homes than they sold in the first three months of 2022, according to estate agents Hamptons.

In a suggestion that the buy-to-let market is bouncing back, property investors are said to have purchased almost 14 per cent of all homes sold in the UK between January and March. This is the highest percentage recorded since 2016.

Investors bought 42,980 homes during the first three months of this year, equating to £8.5billion worth of property.

This sits at nearly twice the £4.6billion recorded pre-Covid in the first quarter of 2019.

The increase in buy-to-let purchases may help reverse the decline of the private rented sector which shrunk from a peak of 5.3m homes in 2017 to 5.0m in 2021.

The North East of England has kept its crown as the buy-to-let hotspot, with 27.7 per cent of all purchases over the last three months snapped up by investors, more than twice the share bought by first-time buyers.

This may be unsurprising given that it offers the highest gross yields in the country, averaging nine per cent compared to 6.5 per cent across England & Wales.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: "Tax and regulatory changes have weighed heavily on the buy-to-let sector over the last five years causing more landlords to sell up at a time when fewer new entrants were looking to buy.

"As a result, there are around 300k fewer privately rented homes in Great Britain today than at the peak of the sector in 2017.

"While we expect investors to continue purchasing at around the same rate over the course of 2022, it's unlikely to be enough to make up for the full loss of rental homes during the last five years."