Buy-to-let - do we need regulation?

Many buy-to-let investors were attracted into the sector by the prospect of high returns and a safe investment for their future.

Where do professional landlord go for landlord insurance?

This view was propergated by a media obsessed with demonstrating to the public how they too could make a fortune by investing in property.

The result a feeding frenzy as banks lent with apparent abandon, a plethora of companies established to show nieve investors how they too could make a fortune from property and at the same time enriching themselves and not their clients.

Could all of this have been avoided with proper regulation?

Could all this pain in the buy-to-let sector have been avoided by some kind of regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)? Or would have regulation just have hampered serious and experienced landlords building up their residential investment portfolios?

What sort of regulation is needed? Would it just be more paper work, more tick boxes and hoops to jump through? How would that help protect landlords and investors.

It's a debate we need to have but I'm not sure there are any easy answers.