A profitable December concluded a highly lucrative 2007 for Britain's landlords, according to new figures, as property market conditions increasingly favoured them. Rents rose by 2.5 per cent last month and by eight per cent over the final quarter of last year to an average of £965 per month, Paragon Mortgages' statistics showed, with the annual rate of growth climbing to 19.4 per cent. Rental yields also reached 6.2 per cent in December after five months at six per cent, while total annual returns rose to 21.3 per cent, up from 7.2 per cent the year before and also on 2005's figure of 12.4 per cent.