Research from lettings tech platform Goodlord shows fewer landlord investors across the UK are considering selling up, compared to figures gathered last autumn.
However, a significant minority still appear intent on leaving the market imminently, with an even larger cohort of landlords unsure about whether they will still be in the market in five years’ time.
Goodlord gathered views of over 1,200 landlords based across the UK to build a picture of the current landscape.
Pace of landlord exodus shows signs of slowing, but not stopping
Overall, the vast majority of landlords are currently in a holding pattern, with 72% not currently offloading any stock nor attempting to purchase any new rental properties.
Despite this, a significant minority – 24% (almost 1 in 4) – landlords are currently actively selling or looking to sell some or all of their portfolio.
This is a large potential chunk of the market and reflects the very real pressures landlords remain under during a period of unprecedented regulatory upheaval.
However, these numbers are lower than when Goodlord last surveyed landlords in September 2025. Then, a third of landlords (35%, more than 1 in 3) said they had sold or had actively tried to sell some or all of their portfolio in the last 12 months.
This aligns with the slight supply and demand easing reflected in the most recent year-on-year rent inflation figures.
In February 2026, year-on-year rental inflation was 2%. This is significantly lower than the rental inflation recorded at the same time in 2025, when annual inflation sat at 4%.
This easing of landlord exits is further indicated by recent figures from TwentyCi, which show a reduction in the number of former rental properties being listed for sale in 2026 so far.
Cohort of those expanding remains small
However, on the other side of the market, only 4% of landlords say they are actively investing in new properties right now.
Whilst this could be a result of a smaller cohort of landlords acquiring bigger portfolios, the imbalance between those looking to sell and those looking to buy indicates that the number of landlords selling up will continue to outpace the number of new landlords joining the PRS or expanding their portfolios.
Landlords divided on long-term plans
Perhaps more concerning are figures around the number of landlords who intend to be in the market in 5 years’ time.
One-third (35%) of landlords don’t believe they will still be a landlord in 5 years. And a significant number remain on the fence about their future in the PRS – 1 in 5 landlords (21%) have not yet decided what their future in the industry looks like.
Only 44% of current landlords believe they will still be landlords by 2031, but some of this cohort believe they will have a smaller portfolio by then.
