The era of the amateur landlord has all but ended, with banks effectively refusing to lend to new entrants to the buy-to-let market.

Thousands of existing landlords also face huge increases in the cost of remortgaging, experts said yesterday.

The warning came as HBOS, Britain’s biggest group of lenders, imposed the third increase in the cost of residential mortgages in as many weeks. Cheltenham & Gloucester, the fourth-biggest lender, also increased some of its rates for the second time in three weeks.

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First-time landlords, including parents eager to buy a house for their student children, will now find it almost impossible to enter the housing market.

Lenders have stopped offering buy-to-let loans or severely tightened their lending criteria for prospective landlords and many of the existing one million buy-to-let mortgage holders approaching the end of their terms.

The development comes as senior figures in the housing industry predict up to two years of declining house prices. The problems in the buy-to-let market are compounded by fears that the target of many would-be landlords – apartment blocks in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff – are facing a rapid decline in their value.

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