Britain’s appetite for buying tenanted investment property has all but evaporated, with the number of homes listed for sale with tenants in situ tumbling by almost 44 per cent in just two years, new figures reveal.
Research from lettings technology firm Propoly shows that only 6,973 properties are currently being marketed with sitting tenants across Britain, a steep fall from the 12,423 recorded two years ago. The collapse points to a profound shift in investor behaviour as the Renters’ Rights Act reshapes the calculus of buy-to-let ownership.
The decline has been sharpest in the South East, where listings with tenants in situ have fallen by 60 per cent. Yorkshire and the Humber follows close behind at 56.3 per cent, with the East of England down 54.9 per cent, the East Midlands off 54.2 per cent and the West Midlands 53.5 per cent lower than two years ago.
Despite the rout, the North West remains the heartland of tenanted sales, accounting for 1,909 listings, or 27.4 per cent of the national total, a reflection of the region’s deep concentration of buy-to-let stock and its enduring appeal to portfolio investors chasing yield. The South East still accounts for 11.2 per cent of in situ listings, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber at 11.1 per cent, the East Midlands at 10.4 per cent, and the West Midlands at 8.8 per cent. London and Scotland trail the field, representing just 3 per cent and 3.7 per cent of national supply respectively.
Sim Sekhon, group chief executive of Propoly, said the figures cut against the prevailing narrative of a wholesale landlord exodus.
“At first glance, this decline suggests that fewer landlords are selling up and leaving the market altogether, which challenges some of the wider narrative around a mass landlord exodus,” he said. “However, the more significant shift is in landlord appetite when it comes to taking on tenants already in situ. The Renters’ Rights Act has created a market where landlords face greater long-term exposure and less flexibility once a tenant is in place, which naturally makes investors more cautious about inheriting occupants they have not personally vetted themselves.”
Sekhon added that the data lays bare a fundamental recalibration within the private rented sector. “Landlords are becoming far more selective about the properties they purchase, and many are increasingly reluctant to take on existing tenants without having carried out their own referencing and due diligence process.”
The findings will sharpen concerns among portfolio landlords and disposing investors that the secondary market for tenanted stock is thinning at precisely the moment many had hoped to use it as a low-friction exit route. With incoming legislation curbing landlords’ ability to regain possession and tightening the rules around grounds for eviction, buyers appear to be voting with their feet — preferring vacant possession and the chance to reference their own tenants from day one, rather than acquiring liabilities they did not sign off on.
For sellers, the message is increasingly stark: a tenanted property may now command a narrower buyer pool and, in many regions, a sharper discount than it would have done before the Act began reshaping the market.
