Government efforts to dampen investment in rental housing are fuelling a supply crisis, hiking rents and making homeownership more difficult to afford, according to new research analysed by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).

Whether you are a green fingered fanatic and can’t wait to pull on your gardening gloves and get stuck in, or if you consider the maintenance of your outside space as just another household task that you need to tick off a list, you can’t deny that the imminent arrival of summer is the perfect time to update and refresh your garden.

Becoming a landlord for the first time is an exciting prospect, with not only the opportunity to bring in some additional income but also the chance to expand your portfolio further and perhaps even start up your own property business.

However, it can be tricky to know where to start once you have invested in your first property and you don’t want to be making too many costly mistakes.

Since the number of people renting long-term is growing, more tenants are finding themselves wanting to ditch the plain décor and make a rental feel more like home. But letting your tenants decorate a rental property is a relatively new concept for many landlords.

Rightmove analysis reveals that March is the strongest month of the year to sell a home, having the highest number of buyer enquiries per property for sale on average over the last five years (SSTC)