The private rented sector is dividing by age, with younger and larger landlords planning to expand while older landlords lose confidence and prepare to sell.
A small survey of 276 UK landlords in September, asked landlords to rate their confidence in being a landlord in the UK over the next five years on a scale of 0 to 10.
The average was 7.1, with 63% scoring 7 or above and 14% scoring 4 or below.
But the average hides a sharp split.
Landlords aged 35 to 44 scored 7.9. Landlords aged 65 or over scored 4.7, the lowest of any group by a wide margin.
Plans follow the same pattern. A third of landlords (34%) intend to increase the number of properties they own over the next two years, 29% will stay the same, 20% plan to reduce and 9% plan to sell everything.
Among landlords with twenty or more properties, 54% plan to grow.
Among the over-65s, 35% plan to shrink or exit, and only 48% say they will re-let the next property that falls vacant, against 69% of landlords overall.
Portfolio structure matters as much as age.
Landlords who hold property personally are seven times more likely to be selling up entirely (14%) than those using a limited company (2%).
Thirty per cent of respondents hold all their property through a company and a further 25% use a mix, compared with 6% letting through a company in the government’s English Private Landlord Survey 2024.
The share planning to grow (34%) is also far higher than the 7% the government found in 2024, which reflects a sample that leans towards larger and incorporated landlords.
Tax is the most cited influence on landlords’ plans (40%), ahead of mortgage costs (31%), legislation (29%) and rental demand (27%).
Among those planning to sell or reduce, legislation (41%) and tax (40%) lead.
Among those planning to grow, rental demand (32%), house price expectations (32%) and, notably, tax (30%) are the main drivers, suggesting that for some landlords tax is a reason to restructure and expand rather than retreat.
The survey closed in September, before last week’s Budget added a further two percentage points to property income tax rates from April 2027.
Asked for their single biggest worry over the next twelve months, a quarter (26%) chose further legislation, 19% void periods, 19% mortgage rates and 13% tax.
More than half of the over-65s (55%) named legislation, while the 35 to 44s were most worried about mortgage rates (35%).
“Tax is the factor landlords cite most, but it doesn’t push them all the same way,” says Richard Samuel, chief executive of August, which conducted the survey.
The full findings are published at augustapp.com/landlord-survey-2026.
This article is taken from Landlord Today