The question over whether buy to let mortgages should be regulated will be among the topics being discussed at The British Property Federation Residential Conference being held on Wednesday, 27 January, at Allen and Overy, 1 Bishops Square, London.

Speakers include chiefs from the Bank of England MPC, Shelter, Council of Mortgage Lenders, Hometrack, leading developers and all main political parties.

The full conference programme is:

9am. Welcome: John Coles, Chairman, Evenbrook (conference chair).

9.30am. Keynote address: Dr Andrew Sentance, Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee.

10am. Property derivatives and the residential sector: Richard Barkham, Group Research Director, Grosvenor; Bill Bartram, Associate Director, JC Rathbone Associates; Kelly Cleveland, Corporate Finance, Grosvenor.

11am. The intermediate market: Is the future predominantly private or social? Richard Donnell, Director of Research, Hometrack (chair); John Coles, Director, Evenbrook; Mark Perry, Group Commercial Director, Affinity Sutton; John Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Orchard & Shipman; David Toplas, Chief Executive, Mill Group.

12pm. Should buy-to-let mortgages be regulated? Keynote address: Michael Coogan, Chief Executive Officer, Council of Mortgage Lenders; Alan Collett, Chairman, Allsop; Kate Faulkner, Managing Director, Designs on Property.

2pm. What are the future funding options for housing?: John Carleton, Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Natalie Elphicke, Finance Partner, Stephenson Harwood LLP; Nigel Hugill, Advisor, Home Communities Agency; Mike Jones, Managing Director, Tribal Treasury Services.

3pm. What impact will the impending election have on housing policy? Keynote address: Campbell Robb, Chief Executive Officer, Shelter; John Moss, Conservative Home and a former Parliamentary Candidate for Hackney South; Naomi Smith, Lib Dem Candidate for City of London and Westminster; (Labour PPC has been invited).

4pm. Close.

• Gross mortgage lending reached an estimated £13.7 billion in December, a 14 percent rise from £12.1 billion in November and up 3 percent on December 2008, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

This is the first time the annual monthly comparison has been in positive territory since October 2007.

However, other than in 2008, this is still the lowest figure for December since 2001 (£13.4 billion).

Lending totalled £39.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up slightly from £39 billion in the previous quarter but down by 14 percent on the last three months of 2008. There is typically a 6 percent fall between the third and fourth quarter.

For 2009 as a whole, lending totalled £143.7 billion, slightly above the CMLs annual forecast of £141 billion. However, this is down 43 percent from £253 billion in 2008 and the lowest annual total since 2000 (£119.8 billion).