93,000 buy-to-let landlords will step away from the rental market this year, with up to 150,000 lost in the last two years in total, according to a recent survey of intermediaries.
The data, from Black & White Bridging’s latest broker insights report and based on research carried out this summer, forecasts a 6% drop in the number of buy-to-let landlords in the UK by the end of 2025.
According to the HMRC, there were 2.84 million unincorporated landlords in the UK in 2023. Black & White Bridging estimates that 57% of these – 1.62 million landlords – had a buy-to-let mortgage, based on data from the English Private Landlord Survey 2021.
This number of BTL landlords has already fallen by 65,000 according to Black & White’s research, which suggests a 4% drop in buy-to-let landlords between 2023 and 2024.
Accelerating rate of change
“Not only does this survey indicate the loss of more than 150,000 landlords from the rental market over a two-year period, it also shows the rate of change is accelerating year-on-year,” says Damien Druce, COO at Black & White Bridging.
“It’s likely these are landlords with small portfolios of one or two properties, landlords who don’t want to face the ongoing changes to regulation and rising costs. Being frank, brokers who write a lot of vanilla BTL business may be nervous to find that there will be fewer buy-to-let landlords overall going into 2026.”
“But we think the industry will be left with a more professional cohort that is more likely to embrace opportunities or property deals that require specialist finance.”
Of the brokers surveyed, less than a quarter (23%) anticipated that the number of BTL landlords would grow this year. In contrast, more than half (56%) are forecasting a drop in numbers.
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