That picture is reinforced by what landlords say is driving their decision-making. Tenant affordability and the need to retain good tenants ranked as the single most important factor in rent-setting decisions, cited by 46% of landlords, ahead of their own running costs, regulatory pressures and tax obligations. Nearly half of all landlords have not changed how they set their asking rents over the past year, pointing to a sector that is absorbing cost pressures rather than passing them on to tenants.
The new Budget data also reveals a striking contrast between how the lettings and sales markets are responding to the post-Budget environment. While sales respondents are more likely to express renewed momentum, with 39% saying they are full steam ahead or more confident than before, lettings respondents are notably less prone to dramatic shifts in either direction. A third of lettings respondents say their confidence is unchanged, and far fewer have completely changed course compared with their counterparts in sales. It is a reminder that the lettings market operates on different fundamentals: longer relationships, less transactional volatility and a professional base that plans for the long term rather than reacting to short-term events.
When asked directly which Budget announcement had most influenced their outlook, the single most common answer across both sales and lettings respondents was not a specific tax measure but rather the absence of major disruption: 38% cited “no major changes, I can now move forward with my plans” as the factor that shaped their thinking most. In a period defined by uncertainty, clarity itself has become a driver of confidence.
Broader market data reinforces this picture of a sector in strategic rather than reactive mode. According to UK Finance, new buy-to-let lending rose by 22.7% by volume in Q3 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, with average gross rental yields reaching 7.15%. Far from retreating, the committed core of the landlord market is actively investing. LRG’s own analysis of Companies House data tells an even more striking story: 67,114 new limited companies were incorporated under the buy-to-let SIC code in 2025, a 21% increase on 2024’s figure of 55,603, with January 2026 already running 10% ahead of the same month last year. It is an unbroken upward trend stretching back to 2015. This is not the behaviour of a sector in panic. It is the behaviour of a sector professionalising, with landlords restructuring for the long term rather than heading for the exit.
The shift in who is letting is equally telling. According to the 2024 English Private Landlord Survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, landlords with five or more properties now account for 49% of all tenancies despite representing just 17% of landlords. The same survey shows that the share of landlords operating through a limited company structure has nearly doubled since 2018. The sector is not shrinking. It is consolidating around committed, professional operators who are in it for the long term.
For tenants, the picture is more challenging. Nearly two-thirds of landlords expect supply to tighten further over the next 12 months, and half of tenants already report having less choice than a year ago. Yet even against that backdrop, the landlords who remain are not responding with opportunistic rent increases. Tenant affordability is their number one pricing consideration, cited ahead of their own running costs, regulation and tax. That restraint, in a supply-constrained market, is significant.
Allison Thompson, National Lettings Managing Director at LRG, commented, “The Autumn Budget created uncertainty, but it has not created the crisis some predicted. What we’re seeing is a market finding its level. Landlords who have decided to stay are doing so strategically, with affordability and tenant retention at the centre of their thinking rather than short-term yield. That’s a meaningful shift, and one that’s good for the long-term health of the private rented sector. The lettings market has always been more resilient than the headlines suggest, and this data shows that resilience in action.”
