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Rising numbers of Britain’s landlords are putting their properties up for sale as a result of increasing regulatory and tax pressures, new research suggests.
Some 254,000 buy-to-let properties in Great Britain came on to the open market in the 12 months to the end of March, according to calculations by estate agent Savills.
This equates to just under 700 homes placed on the market every day. The March figure was 9 per cent above the level in the year to March 2025 and 28 per cent above the same period in 2024.
The data comes as the Renters Rights Act takes effect on Friday, granting new rights to tenants, including greater powers to challenge landlords and lower initial costs to renting. The legislation limits landlords’ ability to remove tenants by abolishing “no-fault evictions”, and ends fixed-term tenancies, replacing them with periodic agreements that renew automatically every month.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said: “For many landlords, the Renters Rights Act has become a clear moment in time to reassess their investment.”
He added that the reforms had coincided with a bulge in the number of expiring fixed-term mortgages requiring refinancing — in most cases likely to be at higher rates — as well as prospective requirements to meet higher minimum energy efficiency standards at a cost to the landlord.
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“Taken together, these factors are prompting a more fundamental review of whether holding rental property continues to stack up for smaller landlords with mortgage finance,” he said.
The research looked at homes that appeared for sale online, whether or not they were sold. But it found that just 14 per cent of those properties that did sell were bought by other landlords and returned to the rental market. Savills said its agents had reported a preponderance of large-portfolio landlords among those buyers.
“So, this is not just about a shrinking pool of rental stock. It is also about a restructuring of the market towards more professional landlords,” said Nicholas Gibson, research analyst at Savills.
Official figures in December 2025 found that landlords with limited company ownership were most likely to want to add to their portfolios. Just over one-quarter of these corporate landlords planned to buy more homes to let out, compared with between 2 and 10 per cent for other types of landlords, according to the English Private Landlord Survey.
London has a much higher proportion of rented housing than elsewhere in the country. This was reflected in Savills’ figures. Of all new instructions in the year to March — including owner-occupied housing — 30 per cent were rental properties in the capital, compared with 13 per cent across the rest of Great Britain.
Tenant advocacy groups welcomed the dawn of the new rules, saying the laws would increase renters’ security of tenure and give them the means to stand up to criminal landlords.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, which represents private tenants, said the abolition of Section 21 — the rule allowing “no-fault” evictions — was a vital step in rebalancing power between renters and landlords. “For decades, Section 21 evictions forced renters to live in fear of being turfed out of our homes, preventing us from raising valid concerns with our landlords. At last, this outdated and unfair law has been sent packing.”
The group urged renters to familiarise themselves with their new rights and how to enforce them. Separate research by property site Rightmove this week found over one-third of renters (35 per cent) aged 18 to 35 were “not confident in their understanding of their rights”.
Others raised concerns over the impact of the new laws on landlords’ willingness to remain in the sector. Jonathan Stinton, head of mortgage relations at Coventry Building Society, said the move to open-ended tenancies added a new layer of complexity to landlords’ increasing regulatory burden.
“If reforms make it harder for good landlords to stay in the market, the risk is fewer homes to rent — and that ultimately drives rents higher for tenants. With the right support and a balanced approach, responsible landlords can adapt. But the rental market only works if there are enough good landlords willing to stay in it,” he said.
