Landlord Sell Off Goes On - but it’s slowing

The share of homes sold by a landlord in Great Britain fell from 15.7 per cent in 2022 to 14.0 per cent so far this year.  

The data comes from Hamptons lettings agency.

This means investors are set to sell 139,820 buy-to-lets across Britain in 2023. That’s 53,000 fewer than in 2022 and 62,000 less than in 2021 when landlord sales peaked.

By the end of this year, private landlords will have sold 294,300 more homes than they’ve bought since 2016.  This is more than the total number of homes in Manchester or Cornwall.

Scotland is the only region in Britain where the landlord sell-off has accelerated this year.  

Investors have made up a record 12 per cent of all sellers in Scotland so far in 2023, up from 10 per month in 2022. 

Tighter rules and regulations, predominantly in the form of rent caps, have seen landlord purchases fall to a record low too.  

Landlords bought just six per cent of all homes sold in Scotland so far this year, the lowest proportion in Britain. It’s also where the gap between landlord sales and new purchases is widest.

Meanwhile the North East, the highest-yielding region in the country, saw the pace of landlord sales slow the most this year.  Here, higher average returns offer landlords more scope to cover their rising costs.  

Landlords accounted for 22 per cent of all sellers in the region this year, down from a peak of 31 per month in 2022.

However, given that 27 per cent of homes in the North East were purchased by a landlord this year, landlords are still buying more homes than they’re selling - the North East and North West are the only regions where this is the case.                                                                                 

In London - the lowest-yielding region in the country and where mortgaged landlords are likely to be hardest hit by higher rates - new purchases have slipped.  

Landlords bought nine per cent of homes sold in the capital this year down from a peak of 20 per cent in 2015. The share of homes sold by London investors has also declined from 19 in 2022 to 15 per cent so far this year.

Consequently, the number of homes available to rent in the capital so far this year has halved relative to 2015 levels.