​Lucy Watkins bought her first rental property when she was 20. The bikini designer, also the founder of a yacht company, was renting a place in ­Notting Hill when it came up for sale. She snapped it up at a discount as her landlord wanted a quick sale.

Around the same time, Watkins was away for the weekend in Hastings where, she realised, she could also ­afford a flat overlooking the sea. Profiting from rent and price growth, she went on to buy a bungalow in Norfolk, which she plans to extend into the ­attic, and two properties in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, building up her portfolio over the course of 16 years.

“Buy-to-let made great financial sense to me – the rents always covered my mortgages, and these are now all paid off bar one,” she says. “Hastings has never made me a huge profit but has gone up in value massively.”

Watkins is now 36. She closed the boating business and is now a career landlady while studying Chinese medicine. “I like the flexibility, because it allows me to follow my passion.”

Buy-to-lets have typically appealed to baby boomers as an income stream in retirement. This set trusts bricks and mortar, having enjoyed huge price appreciation over the last 20 years, and many used cash from their pension to get on the investor ladder.