First-time buyers are rethinking their careers in a bid to close a £21,646 income shortfall and secure a home, research suggests. Aldermore’s First Time Buyer Index shows 35% of prospective buyers need to increase their annual salary by more than £21,000 to meet their property ambitions. That’s necessary to deal with mortgage rates and house […]

Two councils are stepping up action on landlords in the PRS, with one issuing a warning over licensing compliance and another preparing tougher enforcement powers. In Bexley’s Belvedere ward, landlords face fines of up to £30,000, rising to £40,000 for not joining a selective licensing scheme introduced in January last year. Nearly 1,000 applications have […]

The government claim raising EPC standards will help “tenants benefit from lower energy bills” despite warnings of costly upgrades for landlords. The government has proposed under the Warm Homes Plan that all private rented properties will need to meet EPC C targets by 2030. However, as previously reported by Property118, industry experts have warned the […]

Postcodes with large student populations dominate 2025’s buy to let investment activity as landlords look for areas offering strong yields and consistent tenant demand. According to lending data from Paragon Bank, Cardiff’s CF24, Nottingham’s NG7 and Manchester’s M14 top the table. The data is based on completions between 1 January and 31 December and each of […]

Hello, I just renewed my BTL mortgage and the monthly payment went from £54 to £144! Should I pass the increase to my tenant? Should I sell the property? Should I just accept less money for me to live on? Any suggestions gratefully accepted. NB I know it’s a tiny mortgage in the grand scheme […]

More than a quarter of landlords who sold a property over the past year did so with tenants still in place, research reveals. According to data tracking how homes move through the private rented sector, landlords typically sold an average of 1.8 properties with sitting tenants. The latest Pegasus Insight Landlord Trends survey shows that […]

The government claims they will crack down on holiday lets under the Renters’ Rights Act. In a written question, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, claimed rules in the Renters’ Rights Act will prevent landlords from evicting tenants to convert properties into holiday lets. The news comes as a Labour MP […]

Rent levels sit at the heart of almost every argument about housing. Tenants experience the pressure month to month. Landlords experience it through void risk, refinancing, arrears and the simple question of whether a letting still makes commercial sense. Politicians tend to talk about rent as if it is one number moving in one direction, […]

We have a tenant who caused a problem by living in a mess and was reported to the council. We were forced to evict and therefore issued a section 21. They started to clear things and are up to date with rent, and I want to give them another chance. We have tried to contact […]

Millions of people donate to Shelter believing they are helping to put a roof over someone’s head, but what happens to that money once it arrives? The answer is not hidden, it is published every year in Shelter’s audited accounts, yet very few donors ever read them. When David Knox FCA, known to Property118 readers […]

The latest house price index from e.surv Chartered Surveyors puts the average price across Great Britain at £329,000 in February, That’s the equivalent of an annual growth of +1.8%, and activity has strengthened during the first two months of the year. The firm points to improved affordability, lower volatility in mortgage pricing and the return […]

Private renters paid £81 billion to landlords last year, helping to push the country’s overall housing bill to a record £226 billion. Research from property firm Savills shows households spent £226.3 billion on mortgages and rent in 2025. That’s an increase of £8 billion compared with the previous year. Over five years, the total has […]

More London tenants are choosing to stay put, with renewal activity climbing while available rental stock across the capital continues to contract. Chestertons reports that tenancy renewals rose 16.2% month-on-month in February. That suggests a growing share of tenants are remaining in their existing homes rather than moving, the firm says. New landlord instructions increased […]

The government has claimed it is offering support to landlords ahead of the introduction of Making Tax Digital, despite a slow uptake in registrations. As previously reported by Property118, with less than a month to go until Making Tax Digital comes into force, only around 5% of taxpayers, including landlords, have signed up. Under the […]

Analysis of why Scotland’s private rented sector stopped expanding and what rent controls, taxation and regulation may mean for housing supply.

Temporary accommodation in Scotland has reached record levels. What changed in the housing system and why councils are spending £100m+ a year.

Annual rent growth for newly agreed tenancies has returned to positive territory after seven months of declines, new figures from Hamptons show. Average monthly rents for newly let homes in Great Britain reached £1,368 in February. That is 0.6% higher than the same month last year and ends a run of annual falls stretching back […]

Average asking prices for newly listed homes rose by 0.8% in March, climbing £3,023 to £371,042 as the spring selling season begins. Rightmove says the increase follows an unusually flat February and that March normally brings a lift in asking prices. However, the pace of house price growth is modest and is now close to […]

Hello, Will I become liable for Making Tax Digital (MTD) if I rent out instead of selling my property? As I’m now in my 70’s and finding, just about everything, too complicated, I decided to sell 2 properties to stay under the 50K MTD limit but I’ve hit a problem and just don’t know which […]

Ten years after the second home stamp duty surcharge was introduced, research from Hamptons suggests the PRS is 2.2 million homes smaller than it might otherwise have been. The surcharge came into force on 1 April 2016 for additional property purchases in England and Scotland, adding an extra 3% tax to landlord transactions. It marked […]

The Scottish government has announced it will provide £9 million in extra funding to tackle the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) freeze. During the Autumn Budget in England, ministers announced that LHA rates will remain frozen for a second consecutive year in 2026/27. The funding from the Scottish government comes as they announce a series of […]