There are fewer concerns over the state of the country’s rental property market, it has been said.

The situation was not as pessimistic in the second quarter of the year, noted Oliver Gilmartin, senior economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which could suggest the market is starting to bottom out.

He continued: "[The] key to the extent and duration of the current rental downturn into 2010 will be the labour market and how pronounced job shedding becomes."

This news follows the latest repossession statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, which showed there were 11,400 repossessions in the second quarter of the year.

The findings marked a ten per cent decrease on the previous quarter, but a 14 per cent increase when compared to the same period of last year.

Furthermore, there were 205,600 mortgages in arrears of 2.5 per cent or more and the level of arrears for three months or more increased.

The downward trend was partly attributed to low interest rates and a commitment from lenders to help people resolve their problems before they had to take action.