One in five landlords are too embarrassed to admit that they rent out property, according to a recent poll of almost 800 residential property investors by the National Landlords Association (NLA).

The findings show that on average 21% of landlords have been too embarrassed to admit it before. Across the UK, more landlords in the East of England and the East Midlands said they were embarrassed to admit it compared to any other region (29% and 28% respectively).

At the other end of the scale, the English regions with the fewest embarrassed landlords were the South East and Yorkshire and Humber (18%).

Just 13% of landlords in Scotland said they had been too embarrassed to admit it before – the lowest across the UK.

The findings indicate that approximately 400,000 of the UK’s 2m landlords avoid telling people what they do. The NLA says that despite the bad press, the majority of tenants are satisfied with their current landlord and tenancy.

Richard Lambert, CEO at the NLA, said: “The number of people looking to invest in property is rising all the time yet the stigma attached to being a landlord never seems to diminish.”