Gen Z rents, but buys to let
8:05 AM, 24th April 2026, 2 days ago
2
Nearly 400,000 company directors aged under 28 are now running UK-registered businesses, with property investment forming part of a model where younger entrepreneurs rent in one place while buying elsewhere to let.
The analysis of Companies House data by Hiscox identifies 393,531 active Generation Z directors in 2025.
Growth has averaged 78% a year, with new entrants continuing to establish companies, including in property.
The business insurance platform found that ‘Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate’ accounts for 4.7% of Gen Z-run businesses.
These companies typically acquire and hold property, generating income through rent.
Rent and buy elsewhere
Robin Edwards, a property buying agent at Curetons, said: “High property prices continue to make personal homeownership difficult, so many Gen Z investors see property investment as a different way to enter the market.
“Often these Gen Z investors rent and work in cities like London where it’s expensive to buy, so instead they invest in other regions of the UK with much cheaper property prices that offer better yields and more potential for capital growth.”
The direct and partnerships director at Hiscox, Nick Thornhill, said: “The meteoric rise of Gen Z entrepreneurs shows that the next generation is taking an active involvement in business – they’re turning bold ideas into business ventures and taking on influential roles.”
London is home to growth
Hiscox says that director numbers have risen from almost zero in 2012–2013 to more than 97,000 by 2023–2024.
The latest partial year, to November 2024, recorded 56,853 directors, down on the previous sample period but still much higher than earlier figures.
London accounts for 21% of Gen Z-run companies, including property firms.
Growth has extended beyond the capital, with Belfast recording a 180% rise in director appointments over five years.
Bradford follows at 148%, while Bolton has doubled over the same period.
Tags:
buy to let Gen Z, Companies House data, Gen Z landlords, property investment trends, regional property yields, rent where you live invest elsewhere, young property investors UK
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Member Since June 2019 - Comments: 782
11:59 AM, 24th April 2026, About 2 days ago
This number seems to include the rent-to-rent category, I wonder if they are actually active or set these companies up after a course.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 2025
3:41 PM, 24th April 2026, About 1 day ago
Reply to the comment left by Paul Essex at 24/04/2026 – 11:59
If they actually had the income to do it, together with the ‘stake’ in society that allowed them to put down a deposit, if “Gen Z” was a single person, or couple with no kids, who had the money to buy a 3-4 bed principle private residence in an area outside London or our other major cities and rent that to a family (average PCM rent in England £1.3K PCM) using the HMRC rent-a-room scheme to make the income tax efficient and then rented a flat in a city near work and were able to make that work-related rent tax deductible as a work expense then they’d probably be better off in the long-term even though the PCM rent on the city flat might be similar to the house.
You have to be working hard AND have the wit to do this. It means you’re not an idiot.
If Gen Z are doing this or aspiring to do this then it means they have grown up, got to grips with the realities of life (i.e. work and the tax system) and this should give us all hope. This activity would be socially useful, compared to owning second properties in holiday ghost towns. The parties on the lunatic fringes talking about rent controls probably wouldn’t like the Gen Z people trying to get somewhere in life as these would just be the latest bunch of capitalists. It’s also not clear whether these hard-working “Gen Z” people would qualify as part of Kier Starmer’s definition of “working” people…would these people working hard to service the debt or manage the debt on several properties be “Strivers”? However hard they might be striving.
Fortunately these days, as we enter the run-up to local elections, the system has got simpler. If you want to know whether the party you might want to vote for is going to consider you to be a “striver”, or a “worker” working very hard in the city to try and give yourself a secure future, without being reliant on the state, all you need to do is to look for one thing. If you aren’t an idiot because you’ve been able to work out how the tax system works and still find ways to make it worth your while working hard you may not have sufficient time to find out where the idiots are that you just should not vote for: Right now it’s really simple….the idiots in the political system are the ones talking about ‘rent controls’. And the parties that have failed the electorate, are failing, and will fail them are the parties that elected self-publicists talking about rent controls to be their leaders.