Are Landlords Making a Costly Mistake by Selling?
We’ve been having more conversations with landlords considering selling than ever before. The themes are consistent, with relentless headlines, rising costs, tax changes, and a widespread sense that the current environment is working against property investors.
Our view, however, is that many landlords are making a significant strategic error by exiting the market — and we want to explain why.
Landlords Are Leaving, But What Does That Mean for Those Who Stay?
The scale of the exodus is striking. An estimated 93,000 buy-to-let landlords left the UK rental market in 2025 alone, representing 6% of all BTL mortgage holders. That’s up sharply from 65,000 who departed in 2023–24 – a 43% increase year-on-year.
NRLA data reinforces the trend: 26% of landlords sold at least one property in 2024, which was a record high at the time. Their latest survey now shows 41% of landlords planning to sell within the next 12 months, more than double the 19% who said the same just two years ago.
Savills data on what they call the “sell-to-buy ratio” is equally revealing. In 2021, the market was roughly balanced as for every landlord selling, another was buying. By 2024 and into 2025, that ratio had shifted dramatically to 5:1: five landlords leaving for every one entering.
This is a profound structural shift in the market and the graph below captures just how dramatic that change has been, with the blue line representing the break-even point where supply remains stable.
The Opportunity Hidden in Plain Sight
What many landlords overlook is that every seller creates one less competitor for those who stay. Every property that leaves the rental market means tighter supply, more tenant demand for what remains, and upward pressure on rents.
From what we’re seeing on the ground, those exiting tend to be smaller, more casual landlords: those with one or two properties, no real operational systems, and limited appetite for a more regulated environment. For landlords who are committed to the sector, this is the moment to recognise the opportunity rather than follow the crowd.
Supply Is Still 23% Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
The narrative that the rental market is “cooling” has been hard to miss. And yes, the pace of rent growth has slowed from its peak. But it is important not to confuse slower growth with falling rents, or with any meaningful recovery in supply.
According to Zoopla’s March 2026 Rental Market Report, the number of homes available to rent remains 23% below pre-pandemic levels, as the graph below illustrates.
Build-to-Rent Is Not Filling the Gap
Build-to-rent has been positioned as the answer to the supply shortage, but it is not making a meaningful dent at the local level. In areas like Medway, the private landlord remains the backbone of rental supply, and that is not going to change any time soon.
Rents Keep Rising and Medway Continues to Outperform
Medway rents grew 6.7% in the 12 months to December 2025, ahead of both the UK average of 4% and the South East average of 3.6%. The average monthly rent in the area now stands at £1,234, up from £1,164 just twelve months ago.
As the chart below shows, this is not a one-off result. Medway has consistently outperformed the national average since 2016!
The HMO Picture Is Even More Compelling
For HMO landlords, room rates tell an particularly interesting story. In Gillingham, standard en-suite rooms are now achieving £600 to £750 per month, with top-spec rooms pushing beyond £850. To put that in context, the best en-suite rooms in the area were achieving around £550 just a few years ago.
So, Should You Ever Sell?
The answer is not never. There are perfectly legitimate reasons to exit the market. Personal circumstances change, some properties simply no longer stack up financially, and portfolio rebalancing is a sound strategy in its own right.
What concerns us, however, is the number of landlords reacting emotionally, saying they have had enough without properly working through what they are walking away from.
The environment is undoubtedly harder than it was five years ago. But well-managed rental property, regardless of how challenging the conditions, remains a crucial and reliable component of any investment portfolio. It offers a route to wealth growth and relatively consistent cashflow that is not tied to pension drawdown age or the performance of stock markets.
With EPC changes representing the next significant regulatory shift on the horizon, we will be watching closely to see how the landscape evolves. If you would like to discuss how any of this applies to your portfolio, we would be happy to talk it through.
