Blaming landlords for housing crisis is like blaming pubs for drink problems Its lengthy report - "Understanding Landlords" - draws on existing housing data and new material to analyse the profile of people buying-to-let. "Private rented sector landlords have, on average, a more advantaged background," the report concludes, finding three quarters of landlords are aged 45-64, 40pc have a degree or higher qualification, and 34pc live in London or the South East. The report, which has been widely publicised, chimes with other vocal critics of the private rented sector, which is expanding rapidly. Pricedout.org.uk, for example, a lobby group representing younger, aspirant homeowners, has called for landlords to be stripped of their right to offset mortgage interest against tax as a business expense. But landlords are fighting back. Richard Lambert of the National Landlords Association, the biggest representative body for landlords, with 20,000 paid-up members, rubbished the Strategic Society Centre's report, saying it should be titled "Misunderstanding Landlords." He said: "The authors have decided that owner-occupation is best and that Government should rig the markets to achieve this. They just seem to want to prove their preconception that the growth of the private-rented sector is the cause of problems in the housing market rather than a consequence of them. Any idea that landlords are greedily exploiting a market failure is a red herring, he argued. Will anyone be surprised to learn that those who invest in property are likely to be wealthier than those who have not yet been able to buy? It's the nature of a competitive market economy. Claiming that the private rented sector represents a transfer of private income and wealth from tenants to landlords is like saying that pubs represent a transfer of wealth from drinkers to publicans. Britains growning army of private landlords is a subject which raises hackles in many quarters. Government figures show the number of households in the private rented sector has grown from two million in 2000 to almost four million today. Of those aged 25-34, 9pc rented in 2002, compared with at least 16pc today. The proprtion of the population which owns and lets property, while vastly smaller, has also grown. In 1991 just over one pc of adults were landlords compared to over three pc today. And while the financial crisis drastically reduced the ability of young, first-time buyers to purchase a property, it did not deter cash-rich investors from building portfolios at a time of rising rents. For the latter part of the crisis at least, net mortgage lending contracted in the owner-occupied sector - as homeowners paid down debt - while it grew in the landlord sector as banks capitalised on more profitable buy-to-let lending. But mortgage brokers and letting agents say the "tone" of buying-to-let has changed since the crisis. While in the heady, pre-boom years of 2006 and 2007 people may have boasted about their burgeoning portfolios, today's landlords are "quietly managing their properties, embarrassed or even ashamed to talk about the fact they own and let other property," one lettings agent said. Lenders are equally coy about disclosing just how much money they are advancing to landlords. Nationwde Building Society and Coventry Building Society are both significant players in the buy-to-let market - but neither will say what proportion of their net leding currently goes to landlords.