I posted a thread like this a year back, but the responses didn't clear anything up... so I'm trying again.
Please do correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is, you take out a buy-to-let mortgage, buy a place, put a tenant in that place and charge rent higher than the mortgage repayments.
It sounds like free money / free house once the mortgage is paid to me? Sure rent levels could fall below the mortgage repayment levels, the difference will never be that huge though, and assuming you have a good enough job to cover the difference you'll be fine. You'll still pocket a house on the cheap once the mortgage is paid off. And c'mon, house prices aren't going to plummet anytime soon...