When all’s well in the housing market, landlords can provide a pivotal service to society.
When there’s competition for housing and among different landlords, rent can be held in check to below the average monthly payments of a mortgage, thus allowing people to get their own space and save money in order to move onto the property market.
In recent years, the UK housing market has realized its lack of available housing, and this has been reflected in the rate of rents flying well beyond the cost of a mortgage monthly. While it’d be easy to point to this as being landlord greed, there have been outside pressures encouraging such rent rises.
In 2022, the pressures became too much for 140,000 landlords, who sold up and retired, in a movement that accounted for 73 percent of all landlord sales. Now, the state of play is changing again, which might result in a wave of landlords selling up swiftly to avoid further issues and sticky situations.
Grounds Shift Under the Landlords
The new British government has made a point of wanting to make renting more accessible and user-friendly for renters. A part of this is the eventual change to the Renters’ Rights Bill. The new bill would remove the Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions option, which would give renters good footing if they challenge a landlord’s bad practice.
With the ‘no fault’ eviction around, renters can fall prey to a landlord retaliating to their complaints with an early eviction. Of course, revenge isn’t always why Section 21 has been evoked in the past, but the change will allow renters to remain in place amidst any disputes.
Also on the way looks to be a mandatory registration of landlords, and fixed-term tenancies could disappear altogether. Now, some of the opposition party’s members have been working on ways to delay these reforms, seeing them as a bad move. Still, its very presence makes for uneasy footing for many landlords.
On top of this, climbing rents have hit the headlines, which isn’t ever good for the public perception of landlords. According to the ONS, the average rent in England is now over £1,300 after a 9.2 percent increase from January 2022 to 2025. Further, Big Issue reported 25 percent of renters struggling to get deposits back when they move.
A Sales Spree May be Coming
With all of the changes to the state of play for landlords, many may once again look to sell up and retire from the business. In fact, retiring landlords already comprise one of the main factions of people who opt to sell their properties hassle-free online.
When it comes to homes considered a problem property, being damaged or vacant, or impending repossession, retiring landlords often turn to we buy any house platforms online.
These services guarantee sales on any property, which is particularly good for hard-to-sell properties – and which may have been why they turned to renting in the first place – though they still conduct their own formal surveys and condition assessments, with a view to giving free cash offers on terms that suit the seller.
It can therefore be easier and more streamlined than ever these days for landlords to simply move on in less certain times, even if previous tenants left the property in a less-than-ideal state. This could act as a propellant for what may be another big sell-off to come.
After all, surveys reported in April 2025 that over 30 percent of landlords are this very moment considering selling.
The situation for UK-based landlords is changing a lot right now, and with the paths to a sale being easier today than ever before, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see several more landlords getting out of the game.
