The average rental income for a landlord in London has reached an extraordinary £38,000 per year with a yield of an equally amazing 14.6 per cent, according to research from LSL Property Services.

These figures dwarf typical incomes for landlords in every other region of the UK in LSL's latest Buy To let index which shows - outside of the capital - very mixed results.

South west England saw the country's strongest rent rises in the year to the end of January 2014, up by 3.7 per cent; this was followed by a 3.2 per cent increase in London and a 3.0 per cent rise in the south east.

But four of the 10 regions in LSL's survey had rent falls. The sharpest was in East Anglia (down 3.6 per cent in the year) followed by a 2.8 per cent drop in the West Midlands and a 1.5 per cent dip in Wales.

Tenant arrears now represent, as a proportion of all rent, some 7.4 per cent, an improvement on figures throughout most of 2013.