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Many UK landlords will have ended 2009 on a high note after they found that their investment increased by nearly 6% on average through the year.

According to Nationwide, UK house prices rose by 5.9% over 2009 after house prices rose by a further 0.4% in December. For landlords who have had to work through a tough year this is great news and further proves that UK property investment is still a smart move.

And the building society says the housing market revival has, in part, been buoyed by landlords – it says cash-rich investors who have been taking advantage of low house prices are the reason that prices have been increasing through the year.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's chief economist, says: "Few could have foreseen this development at the start of the year, when the near term price trend was still pointing to a repeat of the double digit annual decline experienced in 2008. Although house prices are still 12.2% lower than their October 2007 cyclical peak, they have now rebounded by an impressive 8.9% since their February 2009 trough."

So will 2010 be equally as successful? Well, no one knows, but there is a chance that if investors are still investing in bricks and mortar, prices will continue to rise. Nationwide says it is not clear how large the pool of cash-rich buyers is and how long it will continue to support transactions. But if the steady trickle of cash rich buyers into the housing market continues its momentum, house prices will continue move in the right direction.

To know if you have the money and the ability to become a landlord or to increase your portfolio, you need to talk to an expert. A buy-to-let mortgage adviser can tell you what you need to be able to get hold of a landlord mortgage by assessing your assets and your debts against the potential of the UK rental sector. So call an expert today and talk about your potential and the potential of the growing UK housing market.

SOURCE: Nationwide, 31/12/09

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