The value of property owned by buy-to-let landlords will break the £1 trillion barrier by the middle of next year.

The prediction has come from lender Kent Reliance.

Its analysis of current market trends suggests that the value of buy-to-let property has grown by £109.5bn in the last year to reach £930.7bn.

Longer term, the value of landlords’ property is now three and a half times its level at the start of 2001, when Kent Reliance put its value at £262.1bn.

Most of the current value of buy-to-let residential property (41%) is in London.

Overall, landlords’ earnings are put at £44.8bn in the year to June, equivalent to nearly half the UK’s total annual household expenditure on food.

Andy Golding, chief executive of OneSavings Bank, which trades under the Kent Reliance brand, said: “Buy-to-let property is going from strength to strength as an asset class in its own right.

“Landlords have benefited from the recovery in house prices since 2009, which has pushed their wealth to within touching distance of £1 trillion.

“But as the sector’s value marches upwards, the main impetus has come from the growth in the number of households as demand from tenants continues to climb.

“Private renting isn’t a flash in the pan, and 80% of new households since 2001 have been accounted for in rental properties.”