Overview

The private rented sector was once again impacted by considerable upheaval in 2024

Who completed the survey

The ‘future of renting’ survey was completed by 48% landlords, 47.5% tenants, and 4.5% agents, 47.4% of whom were female and 46.8% male.

Most (71.1%) were over the age of 45 and the majority - 39.6% of tenants, 42.6% of landlords and 39.8% of agents - were based in Greater London or south east England, although tenants, landlords and agents from across all regions of the United Kingdom participated.

Profile of landlord and agent respondents

The majority of agents completing the survey had just one branch (83.6%) and less than 10 employees (83%), but manage in excess of 101 properties (32.2%), followed by 51-100 properties (26.7%).

The survey revealed that 74.8% of landlords have been in the sector for more than 10 years, highlighting a wealth of experience in navigating changing market conditions. This is perhaps why only 15.8% of landlords surveyed use an agent to fully manage their property, up from 13.9% in 2023, and 62.3% are entirely self-managed - a slight drop from 65% in 2023 but an increase from 56.3% in 2022.

The survey also revealed that 70% of landlords own between one and five properties, with 6.4% letting in excess of twenty-one. Over half of landlords entered the market specifically for buy to let investment, while 14.7% are accidental landlords. Only 7% of landlords entered the market in the last two to four years, and just 2.8% in the last year, indicating a concerning slowdown in new landlord participation.

The following analysis explores the dominant issues facing tenants, before comparing the perspectives of all three groups – landlords, agents and tenants - on a number of topical themes affecting the sector as a whole.