More than half of single-property landlords plan to leave the 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.

These figures come from our Q3 2026 Landlord Sentiment Survey, which ran from 1 to 8 October 2026. 1,654 landlords took part and 1,472 completed every page. For the full results, including how sentiment has moved since Q1 and Q2, see the main Q3 2026 results article.

Single-property landlords are often described as the backbone of the private rented sector. Here we look at what they plan to do, who they are, why they are going, and how ready they are for Making Tax Digital.

Half of single-property landlords plan to exit

Asked what is most likely for them over the next three years, 53.1% of landlords with one property or none left plan to exit completely (base 194). The share falls steeply with each additional property: 30.8% of those with two or three (base 354) and 17.6% of those with four or five (base 255). From four properties upwards it levels off at between 14.4% and 17.6%.

This is not a one-quarter result. In Q2, when we asked exactly the same question, 55.9% of single-property landlords planned to exit (base 238), against 19.5% of those with four or more (base 1,326). The small change since then is within normal survey variation.

Nor is it simply about age. Single-property landlords are older than average, but among landlords aged 55 or over the gap is just as wide: 54.2% of single-property landlords plan to exit (base 142), against 16.4% of those with four or more (base 757). Allowing for age, mortgages and ownership structure together, single-property landlords are still around four to five times as likely to plan a full exit.

Critical Finding: In both surveys that have asked about the next three years, more than half of single-property landlords have said they expect to leave the sector completely, around three times the rate of larger landlords. The pattern is stable, and it is not explained by age, borrowing or ownership structure.

For a one-property landlord, selling means leaving

There is an important point behind that headline figure. Our survey offers two selling answers: sell one or more properties, or exit completely. For a landlord with one property, these are the same thing.

Counting both answers together, 57.3% of single-property landlords plan to sell (base 178), against 66.4% of landlords with four or more (base 981). Single-property landlords are also more likely to plan to keep things as they are: 39.9% expect to stay the same, against 25.2% of larger landlords.

They have also sold less recently. 22.0% of single-property landlords sold a rental property in the last 12 months (base 173), against 35.6% of those with four or more (base 952).

Key Insight: Single-property landlords are not more likely than larger landlords to be reducing their portfolios. What is different is that when they sell, the property, the landlord and the tenancy all leave the sector together. A larger landlord can trim a portfolio and stay; a single-property landlord cannot.

Two kinds of single-property landlord

This quarter we also asked landlords the largest number of rental properties they have ever owned at one time. The answers show that “single-property landlord” describes two quite different groups.

Almost half (45.7%) of single-property landlords once owned more (base 173). Most of them had two or three properties at their peak, although one in six of all single-property landlords once held four or more. This group is most of the way out already: two thirds (66.7%) plan to exit completely (base 78), and 43.6% sold a rental property in the last 12 months.

The other 54.3% have only ever owned one property. Half of them (51.1%) plan to stay as they are (base 94), and only 4.3% sold in the past year (base 92). Even so, 40.4% plan to exit completely, more than twice the rate among landlords with four or more properties.

Key Insight: Part of the high exit rate comes from landlords who are already winding down and have one property left to sell. But the lifelong single-property landlord, often someone who bought one home as a pension or kept a former home, is also leaving at more than twice the rate of larger landlords.

Age sets them apart; tax decides who goes

Single-property landlords are older than the survey as a whole. 55.6% are 65 or over (base 171), against 43.4% of landlords with four or more properties (base 946) and 46.0% of all respondents (base 1,496). One in five (21.6%) is 75 or over, twice the rate among larger landlords (10.7%).

We asked what, beyond the ranked factors, influences decisions to sell. Respondents could choose more than one option, so totals exceed 100%. For single-property landlords the three most common answers were:

• Their own age, retirement or health: 56.5% (base 170), against 43.1% of landlords with four or more (base 935).

• Difficulty removing tenants who do not pay or cause damage: 54.1%, against 60.5%.

• Higher income tax rates on rental income from April 2027: 54.1%, against 59.6%.

Only the first of these is more common among single-property landlords. Tenant problems and the April 2027 tax rise matter to just over half of them, but no more than to larger landlords. Licensing (44.7% against 56.1%) and Section 24 (27.6% against 43.7%) are cited markedly less often, which is consistent with most single-property landlords owning outright: 60.8% have no mortgage (base 176), against 25.2% of larger landlords (base 969).

Within the group, however, tax is what separates those leaving from those staying. Among single-property landlords planning to exit, 61.8% cite the April 2027 tax changes (base 89), against 43.5% of those planning to stay the same (base 69). Section 24 is cited by 40.4% of leavers and 13.0% of stayers. Age, by contrast, is cited almost equally by both (58.4% and 56.5%).

Key Insight: Age is the backdrop for single-property landlords as a whole: many are at or near retirement and weighing up whether to keep going. Tax is what tips individual landlords towards the door. Tenant problems are a common concern, but they are shared by landlords of every size.

Mostly not financial distress, with one exception

Most single-property landlords are not leaving because they are losing money. Two thirds (67.5%) say their property is not making a loss after all costs and tax (base 169), and they are half as likely as landlords with four or more properties to report any loss at all (13.6% against 29.0%, base 943).

But for a single-property landlord, there is no rest of the portfolio to balance a loss. One in nine (11.8%) say their only property is running at a loss, four times the share of larger landlords who say all of their portfolio is (2.9%). The numbers are small, but most of these landlords plan to exit.

They are also no more pessimistic than anyone else. 70.9% of single-property landlords are not confident about the outlook for the private rented sector (base 175), almost identical to landlords with four or more (72.3%, base 967).

Key Insight: For most single-property landlords, the decision to leave is about life stage and the rules they let under, not about a property that no longer pays. For the minority whose only property is loss-making, though, there is nothing else to fall back on.

Least ready for Making Tax Digital

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax is being introduced in stages, with the income threshold falling over the next two years. More than half of single-property landlords (53.8%, base 171) said they are not yet required to use it or that it does not apply to them, against a quarter (25.7%) of landlords with four or more properties (base 945).

To compare like with like, we looked only at landlords who consider themselves in scope. Among them, 29.1% of single-property landlords are prepared or getting there (base 79), against 62.7% of landlords with four or more properties (base 702). More than one in five (22.8%) single-property landlords in scope are not aware of the details, against 4.7% of larger landlords.

Readiness rises steadily with portfolio size, from 31.4% of landlords with one property or none (base 86) to 73.3% of those with 21 or more (base 120).

Key Insight: Many single-property landlords believe MTD does not yet apply to them, and some may be right. But among those who think it does, fewer than a third are ready and more than a fifth do not know the details. As the threshold falls, this is the group most likely to need help, and for some it may become one more reason to sell.

In landlords’ own words

We asked what, if anything, would make landlords want to stay in the sector or expand. Around a third of single-property landlords who answered (35.3%, base 139) said nothing would, or that they are leaving, against around a fifth (19.4%) of landlords with four or more properties (base 844).

Themes from single-property landlords included:

• Overwhelmed by change: the volume of new rules and legislation feels overwhelming for someone with a single property and no one to turn to.

• A pension, not a business: several described their property as their retirement provision and felt small landlords were being penalised for it.

• Unable to sell: some would like to leave but cannot, because the property is worth less than the mortgage or a leasehold flat will not sell.

• Upgrade costs: concern about the cost of meeting future energy efficiency standards in older buildings.

• Simply done: a number of landlords planning to exit said they had had enough of government interference and wanted out.

How we analysed the results

• Questions: Q9 (number of rental properties owned, base 1,531), Q3 (plans for the next three years, base 1,629), Q20 (sold in the last 12 months, base 1,502), Q25 (share of portfolio making a loss, base 1,485), Q26 (Making Tax Digital readiness, base 1,496), Q27 (age, base 1,496), Q19 (other factors influencing decisions to sell, multi-select, base 1,486) and Q16 (largest number of properties ever owned, base 1,495).

• Bases: percentages are of landlords who answered both questions in each comparison, so bases vary.

• Groups: portfolio size is grouped as 0 or 1, 2 or 3, 4 or 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 20 and 21 or more. “Single-property landlords” means exactly one property (179 respondents); the 16 who reported none are included only in the “0 or 1” group. Most comparisons are with landlords who own four or more properties. “In scope for MTD” excludes landlords who said they are not yet required to use it or that it does not apply to them.

• Small numbers: no group with fewer than 50 respondents is reported. Single-property landlords in most individual age bands fall below that threshold, so age comparisons use landlords aged 55 or over combined. Differences are described as meaningful only where they pass a standard statistical test at 95% confidence, and the exit gap was also checked in a model allowing for age, mortgage status and ownership structure together.

• Comparisons over time: the questions on portfolio size and plans for the next three years were identical in Q2 and Q3, so exit plans are compared across those two quarters. Q1 asked about the next 12 months, so it is not compared. The questions on sales, losses, MTD, age, reasons to sell and largest portfolio are new this quarter.

• Who took part: respondents are self-selecting Property118 readers, not a random sample of all UK landlords. They are mostly experienced landlords aged 55 or over, and every question in Q3 could be skipped.

What Does This Mean for Landlords?

Single-property landlords are the most likely of any group in our survey to be planning to leave the sector completely. That has been true in both surveys that have asked about the next three years, and it holds once age, borrowing and ownership are taken into account.

The picture is more nuanced than “small landlords are fleeing”, though. Single-property landlords are not more likely than larger landlords to be selling at all; it is that a sale ends their time as a landlord. Almost half are already part-way out, having once owned more. The other half, lifelong one-property landlords, are more likely than anyone to stand still, but four in ten of them are planning to go too.

The reasons are a mix of life stage and policy. Many single-property landlords are at or past retirement age, and age is the factor that sets them apart. Most own outright and are not losing money. What separates those who are leaving from those who are staying is tax, particularly the April 2027 income tax changes and, for those with mortgages, Section 24. And as Making Tax Digital reaches smaller landlords over the next two years, the evidence suggests they are the least prepared for it.

It is important not to overstate what these results show. They describe engaged Property118 readers, not every landlord in the UK, and the survey shows associations, not causes. Intentions are not the same as sales: only 22.0% of single-property landlords sold in the past year.

But each single-property landlord who leaves takes a home out of the private rented sector along with them, unless another landlord buys it. If policymakers want to keep smaller landlords in the market, these results suggest the levers are tax, the administrative load of compliance, and support for older landlords deciding what to do next.

Have Your Say

Do you own a single rental property, or did you once own more? What are you planning to do over the next three years, and why? Please tell us in the comments below; your experiences help explain what the numbers show.

Look out for the Q4 2026 survey at the end of December. The more landlords who take part, the stronger the evidence we can put in front of journalists and policymakers. Read the full Q3 2026 results.