BLOGS

A new tenancy regime, four different starting points

England's private rented sector is adjusting to its biggest structural change in a generation. The abolition of Section 21 "no-fault" evictions and the shift to open-ended periodic tenancies mark the end of a fixed-term model that shaped landlord decision-making for over three decades. For institutional investors, lenders and agents, the immediate question isn't whether the reform matters — it's how landlord behaviour, local authority regulation and rental supply are actually moving in response.

Crucially, England isn't starting from zero. Scotland has operated open-ended Private Residential Tenancies since 2017, and Wales introduced occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act in 2022. Comparing REalyse data across the three nations gives a useful before-and-after lens on how landlords, rents and supply respond once security of tenure is strengthened — and offers investors and lenders an early read on what a mature post-reform market in England might look like.

What the rental data is showing

REalyse rental listings data across the past 24 months shows a divergence in market dynamics that's consistent with landlords repositioning ahead of and during the reform's rollout.

• England: Average asking rents have moved from around £1,600–1,680/month in late 2024 to roughly £1,700–1,770/month through mid-2025, with days on market compressing from the high-40s to around 40 days over the same window — a market where supply has been volatile but demand has stayed firm enough to keep pricing power with landlords.

• Scotland: Asking rents have tracked meaningfully lower, in the £1,100–1,300/month range, but time-to-let is consistently the fastest of the three nations — typically 28–35 days, and trending toward the high-20s by mid-2025. A tenant-friendly regime hasn't dulled liquidity; if anything, landlords who remain active appear to be pricing and letting efficiently within the rules they've operated under for years.

• Wales: Rents cluster around £1,000–1,290/month, with days on market broadly similar to Scotland's but slightly more volatile month to month — consistent with a smaller, less liquid market still digesting occupation contract requirements.

The listing volume data is the most telling signal for landlord sentiment. England's monthly rental listing counts have been notably uneven — swinging between roughly 55,000 and 84,000 across the period — a pattern that looks less like organic demand and more like landlords timing decisions to list, relist or hold stock around the reform calendar. Scotland and Wales, by contrast, show steadier month-to-month volumes, suggesting their markets have settled into a post-reform equilibrium that England is still finding.

Landlord behaviour: selective exit, not mass exit

The narrative of a landlord exodus has circulated since the Renters' Rights Act was first proposed. REalyse data doesn't support a broad-based retreat — average achieved rents in England have generally kept pace with or exceeded asking rents through most of the period, which is inconsistent with a supply glut from panicked landlord selling. What the data is more consistent with is selective portfolio rationalisation: landlords with marginal, high-maintenance or compliance-exposed stock (older EPC ratings, HMOs, short-term-let-adjacent units) exiting via sale, while better-positioned landlords hold and reprice.

This is where comparables data becomes critical for agents and lenders. Valuers need robust sold and let evidence to advise landlords weighing sale-versus-hold decisions, particularly where a property's investment case has shifted now that regaining possession is harder and rent-setting is subject to greater tenant challenge. For lenders, portfolio landlords with buy-to-let books concentrated in lower-yielding, compliance-heavy stock represent a segment worth monitoring for early signs of stress — not because performance has broken down, but because the calculus behind the loan has changed.

Licensing, HMOs and the local regulation layer

The Renters' Rights Act lands on top of an already fragmented local licensing landscape, and this is where "local regulation" genuinely means local. REalyse's HMO tracking currently captures more than 77,000 licensed HMO properties across England (representing close to 193,000 licensed bedrooms) against roughly 24,000 licensed HMO properties in Scotland (around 108,000 bedrooms) — a reminder that shared-house and multi-let supply is regulated, monitored and taxed very differently depending on which side of the border a portfolio sits.

Selective licensing schemes, mandatory HMO licensing thresholds and now a national Private Rented Sector Database and Ombudsman in England add further compliance layers on top of devolved frameworks. For investors underwriting HMO or multi-let acquisitions, the message is consistent: local authority licensing conditions and enforcement intensity are now as material to deal underwriting as rent and yield assumptions, and they vary sharply by council — not just by nation.

Investor appetite: build-to-rent picks up the slack

If individual landlords are recalibrating, institutional capital is filling some of the gap. REalyse planning pipeline data shows Build-to-Rent activity concentrated heavily in London, with just over 13,700 units across schemes currently in progress, granted or under construction in the capital alone — roughly triple the pipeline of the next-largest English region, the North West (around 5,600 units in progress, granted, under construction or withdrawn combined).

Scotland (circa 2,400 BTR units in progress or granted) and Wales (circa 1,500 units) show smaller but active pipelines, suggesting institutional investors are treating the regulatory direction of travel — professionalised, longer-term tenancies — as broadly compatible with the BTR operating model, which was largely designed around long-hold, professionally managed tenancies in the first place. This is a meaningful signal for developers and funds: reform that raises the bar for individual landlords tends to widen the competitive gap in favour of institutional operators who already meet or exceed the new compliance standard.

Outlook

The first phase of the Renters' Rights Act is producing exactly the kind of uneven, market-by-market adjustment that REalyse-style granular data is built to track — pricing power holding up in England even as listing volumes swing, faster and steadier lettings in the more mature Scottish market, and institutional capital consolidating its position in the supply mix.

For developers, lenders and agents, the priority now is precision: understanding how a specific postcode, property type or licensing regime is responding, rather than relying on national headlines about landlord sentiment. As further phases of reform bed in and enforcement mechanisms mature, the gap between well-underwritten, compliant portfolios and exposed, marginal stock is likely to widen — and the data to tell the two apart is already there.