Hello Readers,

Over the past few months I’ve had more conversations with landlords thinking about selling than I think I have since starting out in property.

The conversations often go along a similar line, with the headlines being pretty relentless, costs having gone up and there being a general feeling that the government has it in for landlords.

My advice here, however, is that I think a lot of people are making a significant mistake in selling and I thought I would to share my thoughts as to why!

Landlords are leaving, but look at what that actually means for those who stay

The scale of the exit is pretty staggering to be honest. An estimated 93,000 buy-to-let landlords left the UK rental market in 2025 alone, representing 6% of all BTL mortgage holders. This was up from 65,000 who left in 2023–24 (that’s a 43% increase!).

If we look at NRLA data, we see that 26% of landlords sold at least one property in 2024, which was a record at the time and their latest survey now shows 41% of landlords saying they plan to sell within the next 12 months – this is up from just 19% two years ago.

In addition, I found some very helpful data from Savills about what they call the “sell-to-buy ratio”. In 2021 the market was roughly balanced where for every landlord selling up, another was buying in but by 2024 and into 2025, that had flipped to 5:1. Five landlords out for every one coming in!

This is a seriously dramatic shift and the graph below shows this in a very dramatic visual format, with the blue line being a break even point where the market stays as it is.

The thing that I think people often forget is that every landlord who sells is one less competitor for those who choose to stay. Every property that leaves the rental market means tighter supply, more tenant demand for what’s left and upward pressure on rents.

From what I can see, those leaving seem to be mostly small, casual landlords such as the ones with one or two properties, no real systems and not much appetite for a more regulated market. Those of us who are staying should see this as an opportunity and not simply jump on the bandwagon of wanting to sell up.

Supply is still 23% below pre-pandemic levels

One headline you will not have missed is how the rental market is “cooling” and yes, the pace of rent growth has slowed from its peak dut it’s important not to confuse slower growth with falling rents, or with any kind of recovery in supply.

According to Zoopla’s March 2026 Rental Market Report, the number of homes available to rent is still 23% below pre-pandemic levels and the graph below shows this.

Build-to-rent gets a lot of attention as the supposed answer to this, but honestly it’s not making a dent at the local level. In places like Medway, the private landlord is still very much the backbone of rental supply and that’s not going to change any time soon.

Rents keep going up and Medway continues to outperforming

Medway rents grew 6.7% in the 12 months to December 2025, beating both the UK average of 4% and the South East average of 3.6%. The average monthly rent here is now £1,234 up from £1,164 just a year ago.

As you can see from the chart below, this isn’t a one-off either as Medway has pretty consistently outperformed the national average since 2016. You might recall the article I wrote earlier this year about how Medway house prices and rents smash the national average – this is a continuing story and one that landlords should not overlook!

For HMO landlords, the room rate picture is even more interesting. When I started operating in this market, the best ensuite rooms in Gillingham were going for around £575 a month, but we’re now seeing standard en-suites at £680–£750, with the top properties pushing £875!

So, should you ever sell?

I’m not saying never sell as there are perfectly good reasons to exit. Personal circumstances change, some properties just don’t stack up any more and portfolio rebalancing is a legitimate strategy.

What concerns me, however, are the landlords reacting by simply saying they have had enough without sitting down and properly working out what they’re walking away from.

The environment is harder than it was five years ago, but I always say that properly managed rental property – no matter how hard the environment – is a crucial and reliable part of any investment portfolio. It provides you with a way to grow wealth and generate fairly consistent cashflow no matter on your age (ie: you don’t have to wait for a pension drawdown) or the state of the economy (ie: if stocks and shares are in freefall).

I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this and with EPC changes being the next big thing to watch, I don’t know if things will change soon! As usual, the best way to get in touch is by emailing hasan@home-share.co.uk.

Hasan