It seems increasingly likely that buy-to-let investors will be able to push through inflation-linked rental increases when leases come up for renewal this year. That will no doubt offer welcome respite to residential landlords, many of whom have had to slash rentals over the past two years to keep their tenants.

Unlike housing sales, which in the past 18 months experienced a mini-boom on the back of cheap mortgage finance and pandemic-related shifts in how people live and work, the rental market has been somewhat in the doldrums...