The predicted buy-to-let rush ahead of a Government clamp-down appears to be under way, according to CPBigwood.

The firm has received a flood of inquiries from landlords looking to make purchases ahead of tax and stamp duty changes set to hit the sector hard.

Louise Kean, the firm’s residential lettings and property management partner, said: “We have started back from the Christmas and New Year holiday period on a high.

“We are being inundated with buy-to-let inquiries and need properties to sell. It is quite amazing.”

Over a decade and more buy-to-let has grown hugely either side of a lull resulting from the 2007/8 financial crisis.

But in the Autumn Statement Chancellor George Osborne made it plain he felt the practice was distorting the market and it was time to act, declaring: “Frankly, people buying a home to let should not be squeezing out families who can’t afford a home to buy.”

In a series of moves the Government has imposed a three per cent stamp-duty surcharge coming into force this April, from April 2017 the maximum tax relief available to landlords will drop from 45 per cent to 20 per cent, and from April 2019 landlords will have to pay their capital gains bill within 30 days of selling a property.

A further litmus test of landlord intentions may also come to the fore when CPBigwood holds its next property auction on Thursday, February 25, at the Holte Suite, Aston Villa, starting 11 am. Brisk bidding is expected.

Ms Kean said: “The new financial climate may in the longer term be disturbing for the whole sector albeit some resourceful landlords are turning themselves into companies in a bid to get round the worst of the fall-out.

“But in the short term we are beginning to see a frantic surge in business in order to beat the first deadline.

“The problem is supply which for many months has been at historic lows. We urgently need suitable properties. There is a ready market for anyone looking to sell. And there is plenty of finance available to purchasers. We predict the next auction will be hot, hot, hot.”

A study by broker Mortgages For Business found that limited company applications for buy-to-let mortgages jumped from 15 per cent of all requests in October 2015 to 38 per cent in December. The number of mortgages on offer to companies also rose in the second half of the year, to an average of 147 — an increase of nearly 50 per cent.

Those who own properties through a company will still be able to deduct mortgage interest when calculating their profits. They then face just 20 per cent corporation tax, instead of income tax of up to 45 per cent.