Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Team from a report by Property118. Read the original article for full details.
Large Landlords Most Likely to Sell as 41.6% of Tenants Lose Track
Almost half of landlords with 21 or more properties have sold at least one rental property in the past year, according to Property118's Q3 2026 Landlord Sentiment Survey. In four in ten sales where a tenant was in place, the landlord either does not know where the tenant went or the council rehoused them.
The survey ran from 1 to 8 October 2026. A total of 1,654 landlords took part and 1,472 completed every page. This quarter, for the first time, landlords were asked whether they had sold any rental property in the last 12 months, who bought it, and what happened to the tenants.
Selling rises with portfolio size
Almost a third of respondents (31.5%, base 1,502) sold at least one rental property in the last 12 months. That share rises steadily with the number of properties a landlord owns now: from 22.9% of those with 0 or 1 property (base 188) and 24.9% of those with 2 or 3 (base 338), through 30.9% with 4 or 5 (base 246), 33.6% with 6 to 10 (base 342) and 35.6% with 11 to 20 (base 191), to 46.2% of those with 21 or more (base 173).
Property118 notes that selling is not confined to small or "accidental" landlords, and that the jump at 21 or more properties is too large to be explained by normal survey variation. Because these landlords hold the most homes, their decisions have the greatest effect on the supply of rental property.
Small landlords exit, large landlords trim
What sellers plan next depends heavily on portfolio size. Among recent sellers with three or fewer properties, 59.5% now plan to exit the sector completely over the next three years (base 126). Among recent sellers with 21 or more properties, just 26.2% plan to exit (base 80), while 62.5% plan to sell some, but not all, of what they own. Sellers with 4 to 10 properties (33.5% exit, base 191) and 11 to 20 (30.9%, base 68) sit in between.
Selling and leaving are closely linked across the survey as a whole. Half of all landlords planning to exit completely (50.4%, base 369) have already sold at least one property in the last year, against just 8.3% of those planning to keep their portfolio as it is (base 410). Of all recent sellers, 39.4% plan to exit completely and only 2.3% plan to buy (base 472). Even leaving aside everyone who plans to exit, large landlords are selling more: 40.4% of those with 21 or more properties who are not planning to leave have sold in the last year (base 146), against 23.2% of other landlords not planning to leave (base 969).
Who is buying
Across all 476 sellers, first-time buyers were the most common buyers (35.3%), followed by another private landlord (29.6%) and another owner-occupier (28.8%). Corporate or institutional buyers bought from 7.6% of sellers and sitting tenants from 6.1%; 10.9% did not know who had bought. Respondents could choose more than one option, so these figures total more than 100%. The source article states that the chance a rental home was sold to another landlord varies sharply by region, noting that among landlords who own property in London only 19.
Source: Property118