The exit signal just got louder, 27% of landlords now plan to quit entirely

Interesting to know how many started their selling off their rental properties after the Renters Reform Bill rose it’s head.

And those completing the survey are probably among the better landlords. Better connected to good practice information

Another day and yet more articles about landlords bailing out, the PRS shrinking, rents rising etc. Once again you can stitch today’s article titles together to make a picture about what is going on. So we have “The exit signal just got louder, 27% of landlords now plan to quit entirely” as a result of this “Tenant demand rises as rental supply drops” leaving “Tenant group claim [ing] soaring rents leave renters paying the price” and meanwhile the Government didn’t see this coming as “Government admits no assessment of burden facing landlords”
While this is pointed out day after day in these pages nothing changes. Landlords keep being “incentivised” to stay in the game by the prospect of being stuck with rogue tenants for more than a year with Courts biased in the tenants favour and by the prospect of huge fines for administrative slip ups like £7,000 for not sending a pointless letter which in my experience was not understood by tenants.
I would think that many landlords with tenant problems will now just sell up as that is the only mandatory ground left, that is until a desperate Government faced with rising homelessness decides it isn’t of course.

Eight good prospects from one advert, plus a dozen more who do not stand a chance on affordability grounds. Says it all.

Most of the wealth in the UK is in private pensions and residential housing stock: Rachel Reeves just included your personal pension along with your principle private residence in the IHT net. Your buy to let property or portfolio as well of course….and potentially also your business (90% of employment in the UK is in small business). That’s a great big stick to punish working families for working hard and employing people.

Faced with reports like this and the discovery that Portugal doesn’t charge inheritance tax to family members (it charges 10% stamp duty to non family members instead) I’ve started wondering about what the effect of selling your business and your principle private residence and retiring to Portugal would be. What I found was that even if you were a non-UK resident the government would STILL charge you death duty at 40% on assets held in the UK. So presumably, even if you had your money invested in residential housing via a limited company in the UK, but you held your shares in Portugal, the government would still charge you 40% (vs. 0 in Portugal). Or even if you had investments held in your SIPP, e.g. commercial property in UK, or shares in UK companies held in your SIPP, then the government would still charge you 40% on UK investments held in your SIPP or SSAS, even if you were a Portuguese resident.

So reflecting on all that, if you had concerns about inheritance tax and were thinking about retiring abroad not just to enjoy a lower cost of living but also to benefit your FAMILY, in the first place it’s easy enough to sell your principle private residence move the cash abroad and just buy another residence…probably a much nicer one than you’ve got today. But if the UK will still charge 40% IHT on UK assets when you die then the only smart thing to do would be to dump your UK assets held in your SIPP, SSAS or limited company and invest them in non-UK assets.

With unemployment rising, the country needing growth across the business community, investment required in housing as well, and most of the country’s wealth tied up in pensions and residential housing stock that’s a really STUPID thing to do to your economy isn’t it?

Who other than a bunch of complete idiots would create an economic environment that favoured UK wealth creators dumping UK assets at a time when the country badly needs economic growth? And surely you’d have to be REALLY incompetent to favour a system that incentivises you to dump UK assets when your nearest neighbours really want the money.

Do you think that perhaps people who want to build lots of council houses or sort out the adult social care deficit need to stop thinking beautiful thoughts in Westminster, stop living in fairyland and go back to thinking about how to get economic growth and stimulate investment INTO the UK…. not OUTof it?

As a live in hmo owner for 30 years now not renewing licence,not selling due to capital gains tax so will live in a large house with one room renter. Four others left or looking for alternatives this good news for other hmo owners in Ipswich so many unlet rooms. Tendency for over regulation and the costs involved, politicians do not understand the law of unintended consequences or do not care.

I think there is a lot politicians do not understand.

A decade ago my agent used to advise me to hold rents down a bit in order to reduce the risk of void periods. Now, because of government changes, including the Labour Renters Rights Act, any good agents advise landlords to put rents up to market rent whilst they can: Government changes affect the advice that professionals give to landlords.

Rachel Reeves changes bringing pensions into the Inheritance Tax kick in in April 2027. At this point if you are holding UK-based shares in a SIPP, SSAS or ltd company in the UK then presumably these would all fall within the scope of inheritance tax in the UK. But if you were to sell these shares, retire to countries like Portugal that do not levy inheritance tax and invest in assets not held in the UK instead then presumably you could potentially save your children 40% inheritance tax. I.e. from next April Rachel Reeves will have created an incentive to dump UK assets.

When Rachel Reeves changes kick in they will change the advice that independent financial advisers and wealth managers give people because if they are advising on inheritance tax they will be obliged to point out to people who have retired out of the UK to places like Portugal, or are thinking of doing it, that they can save 40% inheritance tax by moving their investments out of the UK as well.

That is an exceptionally stupid position to put the country in at a time when the country needs investment and economic growth.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 30/07/2026 – 17:44
if you expatriate yourself for five years capital gains tax does not apply though must be full expatriation unless the government has changed that recently

Reply to the comment left by Tony Edwards at 31/07/2026 – 09:07
Really? So if you move abroad for five years, e.g. to Portugal, you don’t have to pay the capital gains tax either?