Hamptons said landlord purchases exceeded landlord sales for the first time in seven years, as the 12-month re-letting ban made selling a property more complicated. Aneisha Beveridge, the firm’s head of research, said many landlords who wanted to leave the sector because of the Renters’ Rights Act have probably already done so.
She said the act has been a long time coming, and that the prospect of being left with an empty property that cannot easily return to the rental market has made holding on to an investment look more attractive.
Aneisha Beveridge on risk
Beveridge said: “While the new rules may have encouraged some landlords to sell, the bigger shift has come from years of tax changes and higher mortgage costs, which have gradually reduced the number of landlords in the market.” She added: “What’s changed more recently is the balance of risk.”
She also said: “A tougher sales market and the introduction of a 12-month re-letting ban mean selling has become a more complicated proposition for landlords.” That change matters most for landlords who evict tenants in order to sell, because if the sale collapses they must wait 12 months before re-letting.
June figures across Great Britain
Hamptons said the share of homes listed for sale that were previously rented fell to 9.2% nationally in June, down from 11.3% last year and below the 2021-2022 peak. Across Great Britain, 24.4% of flats listed for sale in June had previously been rented, compared with 7.8% of houses.
Hamptons also said the average flat took 85 days to go under offer in June, while the average house took 59 days. In the same month, the average rent on a newly let home across Great Britain reached £1,392 per month, up 1.6% from a year earlier and the strongest annual growth in 13 months.
England stock and the next risk
The number of rental homes in England has remained broadly unchanged at 4.8 million over the past decade, while the total number of homes has grown by around 2 million. Hamptons warned that the 12-month re-letting ban could leave up to 100,000 rental homes in limbo.
That leaves a practical question for landlords weighing a sale in 2025: how many failed sales were caused specifically by the re-letting rule, and how many were driven by the wider sales market. Hamptons’ figures show the share of homes leaving the rental pool is already shifting, but the size of the final hit will turn on how many deals collapse after tenants are evicted to sell.
