Drive due north out of Cardiff towards Merthyr and about 12 miles from the Welsh capital's centre, you happen upon a low-rise industrial estate clearly visible from the road.

In the early 1990s, one of the estate's nondescript buildings became a major focal point for the UK property industry. It was from here that details of almost 50 per cent of repossessed British properties were recorded.

Staff collated this depressing information from a variety of lenders. The particulars were then distributed to selected regional auctioneers who ultimately sold off houses and flats where, in many instances, owners had simply walked away and posted the keys back through their building society's letterbox.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the UK property pendulum continues to swing away from another high point of ownership.

Last year's 21 per cent rise in repossessions, to 27,000, will increase this year to 45,000, although this is still well below the 75,000 figure recorded in 1991, when the Merthyr office worked around the clock.

Over the past century, UK property ownership has gradually ratcheted up, from 10 per cent in 1914 to 49 per cent in 1971.

Ten days ago, the CML reported today's ratio had fallen below 70 per cent (to 69.8 per cent), although this figure is still in stark contrast to countries such as Germany, where ownership levels hover around 40 per cent, and Switzerland where fewer than 30 per cent of people own property.

European politicians are increasingly alert to the benefits of ownership - last year, President Sarkozy of France introduced legislation designed to encourage more of his countrymen to acquire their own home.

Could UK levels grow even higher? Given the long-term trend, an affirmative answer would appear logical.

Yet while figures for privately-owned properties include buy-to-let investors, were the percentage to climb to levels seen in Spain and Ireland (where it's over 80 per cent), there would be an almost inevitable reduction in the supply of rented accommodation.

One crucial assumption in this theory is that the rate of UK population growth will continue to exceed the rate at which new homes are built, which appears likely for the foreseeable future. In other words, as accommodation demand rises, supply will remain at best stagnant and may even fall.

Investors alert to this imbalance of radical demographic change and property availability no longer need to contact those rather drab offices on the Cardiff-Merthyr road.

Type repossessed properties' into Google and 208,000 websites present you with details of perhaps 98 per cent of UK supply.

Some readers may feel there's something a little distasteful about benefiting from another's misfortune, but buyers of repossessed properties act as an effective balance to the property ownership pendulum.

While some buyers acquire property to refurbish and sell on, an increasing number add them to their buy-to-let portfolio.

A large number of people, including students, migrant workers and those who wish to remain relatively mobile, do not want to buy.

To these folk, the role of the private landlord is critical, which is why many buy-to-let investors will consider the rising number of repossessions to be an opportunity.

It would be far better if repossessions did not exist, but as unpalatable as the truth may be, they do. Furthermore, as rental demand is currently running at a five-year high, the more of these properties finding their way into the private rented sector, the better.

For without a buoyant rental market, the UK economy would be in dire straits.