He believes that it's never been a better time to get into buy-to-let, or increase your portfolio if you're already a buy-to-let landlord. You can capitalise on the negativity of the credit crunch and buy property at cheap prices and rent them out easily.

Here's his brief guide as to why the buy-to-let market is still a very attractive investment proposition and how now is a good time to expand your buy-to-let property portfolio.

The current state of the buy-to-let market

Buyers have been scared away from the property market. Why would anyone buy a property if they thought that they could buy it cheaper next month, next quarter or even next year!

As most property buyers are looking to live in the property, they're not interested in calculating the yield, as it's of no interest to them. Due to talks of a credit crunch, they're just waiting to buy, and this is resulting in a natural fall to property prices.

So who is left buying? It's, of course, professional property investors. The most important factor to a buy-to-let landlord is yield, and then the amount of cash they have to put down. If a buy-to-let landlord can get a high yield and manage to put down a smallish deposit, then the only limiting factor in any landlord's business plan is their starting capital.

The current buy-to-let myths at play

1. You cannot get a mortgage

This is one of the biggest myths going round. It has been well-reported that two thirds of mortgage products have been pulled, and this is correct. But the number of mortgage products is irrelevant to the amount of money there is to lend.

HSBC (who are worth £100 billion) have announced that they will lend and match any rate that you're on.

Lenders are just pulling some of their "sexy" products that entice you in and they're replacing them with unexciting products with sensible rates, at roughly 1.5 per cent above base rates. But these rates are still pretty good.

2. A recession is likely

A recession is only 10 per cent likely. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced UK's anticipated gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 1.6 per cent. For the UK to be in a recession, we have to see the GDP growth being negative, and this is highly unlikely.

3. Prices will crash

Interest rates are low and will be getting lower. Liquidity is already coming back, which is being proved by the fact that all of the major banks are still offering buy-to-let mortgages at 85 per cent loan to value.

Residential buyers will still stay out of the market. By the time they realise that property prices have stopped dropping and have got back to their end of 2007 prices, the buy-to-let landlord will have firmly secured their position.

Fundamentals ALWAYS overrule hype. There is nothing at play to make property prices crash, unless liquidity was withdrawn from buy-to-let landlords, there was mass unemployment on the horizon, interest rates were set to rocket, or major punitive taxes were being introduced. If anything, all of the opposite is true:

• Interest rates are getting lower
• Liquidity is rising for buy-to-let landlords
• Unemployment is getting lower
• Tax is being reduced.

4. Buy-to-let will cause the crash

There have been a lot of novice buy-to-let investors who have purchased overpriced city centre apartments from companies and who now cannot afford to keep them. This is a small proportion of the market and these properties will come to the professional landlord in time.

The only things that can cause a crash are those factors stated above.

The next 6 to 18 months

As I've just said, the two most important things to a landlord are yield and the amount of cash you have to put down.

1. Yield

The great thing about first-time buyers staying away from the property market is that this means that they have to rent. This increases demand for rental properties and, guess what, rental prices increase! This then just causes the yield to get better and better.

2. The amount of cash you can put down

This is what has really changed. Previously, a buy-to-let landlord would have had to put down at least a 15 per cent deposit. But now, due to them being able to negotiate quite ferociously, a landlord can bid the price down, as all they have to compete with are other buy-to-let landlords. Since landlords are a cheeky bunch, the least cheeky landlord wins, and will win with quite a cheeky offer!

When you're looking at the price of a potential buy-to-let property, ask the surveyor to use the latest data he has access to so he can value the property at its latest market value. Give the surveyor comparables of properties that have sold previously and force the issue, so that the surveyor values the property on the recent data.

So, if a property sold for £105,000 three months ago, it's reasonable to ask the surveyor to value the property at, say, £100,000 – which is 5 per cent less than three months ago.

If you do well and manage to negotiate the price to £85,000, then you've got the property at 15 per cent below what the surveyor has valued it at (i.e. you've got the property at Below Market Value (BMV)).

Considering fundamentals will be realised (as they always are), this opportunity only exists for a short period - say 6 to 18 months. After this, prices will go back to normal and surveyors will have a much clearer picture of prices as the prices would have settled down and become more stable – hence, more predictable.

Build up your own buy-to-let property portfolio

1. Ascertain your yield and BMV criteria
2. Find properties that meet your criteria – Lawpack's bestselling book, Buy-to-Let Bible, details all of the buy-to-let property hotspots for 2008
3. Negotiate the purchase price
4. Arrange for a surveyor to go out and value the chosen property at market value
5. Negotiate with the surveyor if the value falls below your expectations
6. Arrange a mortgage
7. Get in touch with suitable letting agents

This is not an exact science. You'll be negotiating with people, so don't expect it to work like clockwork.

If it ends up that the property requires work, then you'll have to look if the deal is still worth it.

Expect to spend on surveys. In most buy-to-let landlords' experiences, they acquire only one in every three properties they survey.

More expert tips on how to get the right buy-to-let deals and achieve a profitable buy-to-let yield, even in a market that's in a possible slump, can be found in Ajay's two buy-to-let books, "Buy-to-Let Bible" and "The Seven Pillars of Buy-to-Let Wisdom". In these bestselling buy-to-let guides, he outlines his secrets to buy-to-let success and shows how you, too, can turn a deposit of £500 into a buy-to-let property portfolio worth over £13 million.

More information
Homes downturn means leap In letting
Resilient buy-to-let may soften housing downturn
Why you can still make money from buy-to-let in a recession
Top ten tips to profitable property
How do I go about increasing the rent on my property?
Have you given a Tenancy Deposit Protection Form to your tenant?
Buy Ajay's guide, 'Buy-to-Let Bible'
Buy Ajay's guide, 'The Seven Pillars of Buy-to-Let Wisdom'
Get all your tenancy agreements with Lawpack's 'Residential Lettings Kit'
Learn all about your legal responsibilities as a landlord with Lawpack's guide 'The Complete Guide to Residential Letting'