Becoming a landlord is an increasingly attractive prospect, as rents and tenant demand continue to rise.

The nation’s landlords, and those considering investing in property, have been given further evidence that now is a great time to be involved in buy-to-let, with rents hitting a new high in June.
Average rents have smashed through the NIS3500 a month barrier to reach yet another record high, according to the latest buy-to-let index from LSL Property Services. The average rent increased 0.7% from May, up to NIS3700 a month.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the capital has seen the biggest growth in rental prices over the past 12 months, reaching NIS 5400 a month, representing an annual growth of 6.9%. However, the cities in the north and west of the country have seen significant annual growth of 5.1% and 4.6% too. Indeed, only the centre of the country has seen rents fall over the last year (by 0.3%).
Of course, the rent level only tells part of the story – what any professional landlord is really interested in is the yield they are enjoying.
And while these have been dented by struggling house prices, they are still more than healthy. According to LSL’s research, the total annual return per property reached 1.3% in June. And if current trends continue, the firm forecasts that investors could be looking at a 2.3% return over the next year. That's the the equivalent of NIS20,000 per property!
A big factor in these ever rising rents is the significant undersupply of rental property. According to the latest figures from the Association of Residential Letting Agents, three quarters of the association’s members have reported prospective tenants outnumber the available properties, rising to 82% in the centre of the capital.
Incredibly, two years ago the figure stood at just 10% for the country as a whole and 8% in the centre of the capital.
This clearly represents a great opportunity for existing landlords to expand their portfolios, and new investors to enter the market.

BTW this story is about the UK - as they say it's the same the whole world over ...
http://www.lovemoney.com/news/property-and-mortgages/buy-to-let-investme...