Landlords in London are more likely to use a letting agent than in the rest of the country, lenders say.

A survey of landlords by the Council of Mortgage Lenders found that 70% of London landlords employ an agent in some capacity, with about 40% of these contracting the agent to manage all aspects of the business, including finding a tenant, collecting rent and maintaining the property.

Outside the capital, this falls to only 60% using an agent, although about two-thirds of these opt for full management through the agency.

Despite several surveys pointing to an increase in landlords incorporating ahead of the mortgage tax changes, only 6.2% of landlords in the capital said they used a company structure. This fell to 2.8% outside London.

Three-quarters of London landlords said they don’t plan to change the number of units in their portfolio size over the next five years.

However, of those who do plan to change the size of their portfolio, 13% of London landlords were more likely to plan to buy, compared with 9% who said they would sell.

Outside London, 8% plan to expand their portfolio, while 15% hope to reduce it.

Most London landlords (79%) own flats to let, while 47% have houses. In the rest of the country, just 40% of landlords rent flats, while 84% rent houses.

Some 60% of those in London own a single property, while a further 20% own two properties – mirroring the distribution in the rest of the UK. Likewise, about 10% of landlords in London own five or more properties, similar to the rest of the UK.