The “Register your rental property” service, the public name for the Private Rented Sector Database, opens in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026. Most coverage has focused on the £65 annual fee and each region’s deadline. The draft regulations go further. They contain rolling duties that continue long after registration, and in some situations […]

Landlords saw average UK private rents rise by £52 a month over the year to September, taking the monthly figure to £1,406. The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) provisional figures put annual rent growth at 3.8%, unchanged from August. The North West recorded England’s strongest annual increase at 5.7%. London and the South East had […]

The value of buy to let loans advanced to landlords rose by 25% in the second quarter of 2026 compared with a year earlier, reaching £10.7 billion. UK Finance recorded 58,051 new loans during the period, an increase of 20.6%. However, the annual comparison was affected by unusually low activity last year, after BTL borrowers […]

Hello, The engineer carrying out my Gas Safe checks last week was gloomy. He said he had just received notification that the previous tolerance allowed on gas pressure had been reduced. He feared that this would mean him having to fail systems that had previously passed. If a property failed he would be obliged to […]

Hello, I’ve recently had an existing HMO licence varied by Coventry City Council to include a condition requiring the landlord or manager to be the account holder for gas, electricity, water and council tax. There is an exception where the property is let to a cohesive group of full-time students on a joint tenancy, but […]

The government will fail to meet its 1.5 million homes target by a third, according to new research. Research from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the University of Glasgow warns that high construction costs continue to hinder private developers’ efforts to meet the government’s housing target. The news comes as housing secretary Angela […]

The government has announced it has extended the Warm Homes Discount for another five years. The scheme offers a £150 rebate on electricity costs for households in England and Wales. The scheme is open to eligible households, including older people and low-income renters who receive benefits such as Universal Credit or Housing Benefit. Tenants meet […]

A flatshare website is urging the Chancellor to raise the Rent a Room tax-free allowance in the Budget to encourage more households to take in lodgers and boost rental supply. The scheme allows people to earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free from renting out furnished rooms in their homes, but the threshold has remained […]

Build a business, pay your taxes and leave something worthwhile for your children. For many landlords, that has been the plan for decades. Reports that handing over a family company could become more expensive after the next Budget have struck directly at that ambition. The anger is easy to understand. Owners fear another tax demand […]

Industry experts have warned the Chancellor against piling further pressure on landlords ahead of the Autumn Budget next week. With speculation mounting over potential capital gains tax rises and an annual property tax, fears are growing over what the Budget could mean for landlords. However, industry experts warn that if the government wants to boost […]

A modest rent rise still needs evidence to support the whole proposed rent and for landlords concerned by Property118’s recent tribunal coverage, that means looking beyond the size of the increase. Here, we examine the Manchester and Leeds decisions alongside Propertymark’s review to explain what a useful evidence file should contain. In the Manchester case, […]

Landlords in prime central London are seeing yields at their highest since 2009, as rising rents and lower property values improve returns. Savills says yields on prime London flats are broadly above 4%, reaching an average of 5.8% for one-bedroom properties. However, the Renters’ Rights Act remains landlords’ biggest concern, with almost half of the […]

More than four in 10 homes for sale across England have already had their asking price cut, and there are now 5,786 more reduced-price listings than in August. Research by estate agency eXp UK identified 165,647 homes being marketed below their original asking price, out of 403,962 properties available. The firm compared the listings with […]

A charity is urging the government to unfreeze Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates ahead of next week’s Autumn Budget, warning that rising rents are leaving older renters struggling. Independent Age claims that since LHA rates were last uprated, average rents have risen rapidly, leaving older renters struggling to afford essentials. LHA determines how much Housing […]

More than a third of tenants would worry about securing their landlord’s permission if their home needed adapting to support a loved one, research has found. The concern comes before any request has been refused and the survey measures what both private and social renters fear might stand in their way. Habinteg Housing Association found […]

Landlords in eight of the UK’s 12 regions saw average rents fall in September, despite the national figure reaching another record high. HomeLet’s latest index puts the UK average at £1,387 a month, up 0.4% from August and 3.3% on a year earlier. Outside Greater London, however, rents dipped by 0.3% over the month to […]

I was very saddened to learn of the passing of Richard Bowser, editor and founder of Property Investor News. My sincere condolences go to his family, friends and colleagues. Richard and I shared the stage at many industry debates over the years. Those occasions are part of my own memories of working in this sector, […]

More than half of landlords who own just one rental property plan to leave the sector completely within three years. In our Q3 2026 survey, 53.4% of single-property landlords said exiting was their most likely course (base 178), against 16.7% of landlords with four or more properties (base 981): more than three times the rate. […]

The government says it will continue to evaluate Making Tax Digital for Income Tax as the scheme is extended to those with qualifying income over £30,000 from April next year. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax became compulsory in April 2026 for landlords and sole traders with qualifying income of more than £50,000. The threshold […]

Fewer than one in four landlords surveyed knows about the planned landlord database and ombudsman, despite four in five saying they understand the Renters’ Rights Act. Research by property management platform August found that just 23% of respondents were aware of the database and ombudsman, which it says every private landlord in England will be […]

Hello, Re: the ‘empty dwelling management order’, which is a fancy name for councils ……… for your property! There seems to be very limited information on the details of this but it seems the new 6 month limit comes in on the 5th November. My questions about this: 1. Does the 6 month vacant period […]