The doom-mongers were wrong. Britain’s most prolific London agency has delivered an emphatic verdict on the capital’s rental sector in the very month the most sweeping shake-up of tenancy law in a generation came into force, and it is one that buy-to-let investors will read with considerable relief.
Foxtons’ April 2026 Lettings Market Index, published this week, shows the capital’s rental machine humming through the run-up to the Renters’ Rights Act, which took effect on 1 May. Applicant numbers rebounded, supply outpaced last year’s anaemic levels and tenants continued to spend a punishing 99 per cent of their stated budgets to secure a roof in London.
For a sector that has spent the past 18 months bracing itself for an exodus, the message from the City’s largest lettings desk is that the market has shrugged off the legislation — at least for now.
Demand snaps back, supply holds the line
The Foxtons numbers paint a picture of a market that re-found its rhythm in April. New renter registrations climbed 9.5 per cent month-on-month, although they remain 6 per cent shy of the levels recorded a year ago, when a flood of would-be tenants was racing to lock in deals before the legislation arrived.
New instructions tell a similar story. Listings were 3.7 per cent ahead of April 2025 on an annual basis but slipped 6 per cent against March, reflecting the early spring peak that had pulled landlord activity forward.
Crucially, the ratio of renters chasing each property, the metric that has tormented London tenants for the past three years, eased. The figure was down 6.5 per cent year-on-year, even as it rose 15.6 per cent against March. In plain English: the bidding wars of 2024 and early 2025 have lost some of their ferocity, but stock is still being snapped up at speed.
Rental prices, meanwhile, remain stubbornly close to the ceiling. Renters are spending 99 per cent of their budgets — a figure unchanged from a year ago and barely a whisker below March. There is no relief in sight for those hoping the new legislation might tilt the affordability dial.
A behavioural shift, not a structural shock
Gareth Atkins, managing director of lettings at Foxtons, told Property Portfolio Investor that the legislation has so far been a non-event for market mechanics, but a quiet revolution for tenant behaviour.
“The Renters’ Rights Act has landed in a busy season with momentum unimpeded by the new legislation,” he said. “Applicant numbers have spiked, supply is strong and budgets are holding firm.”
But, he warned, the more telling shift is psychological. “Renters are moving earlier and acting more decisively, but they’re also more discerning about where they spend their time. A property that would have generated viewings on momentum alone two years ago now needs to earn them.”
The implication for landlords is that the slack rope of 2022-2024, when almost any listing could expect a queue down the street, has been pulled taut. “The market is rewarding landlords who treat the launch of a let with the same care as the launch of a sale: clear positioning, accurate pricing, and a property that’s genuinely ready on day one,” Atkins added.
The verdict echoes the latest RICS UK Residential Market Survey, which has consistently flagged the lettings sector as the most resilient corner of the housing market, with a net balance of surveyors continuing to forecast rising rents.
A tale of six Londons
Beneath the headline numbers, however, Foxtons’ year-to-date data reveals a market splintering along postcode lines — a familiar tale for anyone who has watched the capital’s micro-markets diverge in recent years.
| Region | Supply (new instructions YoY) | Demand (new registrations YoY) |
|---|---|---|
| All London | +1% | -6% |
| Central | -24% | -16% |
| East | +7% | -7% |
| North | +34% | -3% |
| South | -1% | -8% |
| West | +40% | +17% |
West London is the runaway story, with supply up 40 per cent and demand up 17 per cent year-to-date, a pairing that suggests the prime western postcodes are functioning as the safety valve for a market under structural strain elsewhere. North London is not far behind on the supply side, where new instructions are up by more than a third.
Central London, by contrast, is the casualty. New instructions have plunged by almost a quarter year-on-year, while demand has dropped 16 per cent, a double squeeze that hints at landlords retreating from prime stock and tenants priced out of W1 and SW1 looking further afield. South and East London are softer still on the demand side, suggesting that the long-running investor exodus from prime central postcodes is rippling outwards.
The investor takeaway
For UK property investors, the April 2026 index is a quietly significant document. The collapse in the tenanted-stock sales market and the steady drumbeat of regulatory tightening have prompted many to question whether the buy-to-let model still works in London. Foxtons’ data suggests that, for those prepared to professionalise their offer, the answer is yes.
The Renters’ Rights Act has not killed demand. It has not crashed supply. It has, however, raised the bar. Landlords who turn up with a tired flat, a punchy asking rent and a casual approach to presentation will increasingly find themselves staring at an empty diary. Those who treat each instruction with the discipline of a sales launch, conversely, are still finding tenants in days, not weeks, and at near-asking prices.
Whether that calm holds through the summer, as the Government’s Information Sheet obligations bite and councils sharpen their enforcement teeth, remains the open question of the season. For now, though, the capital’s lettings market has done something few expected: it has greeted the biggest regulatory reset in a generation with a shrug.
