I’ve been running The Independent Landlord for almost four years. With the bulk of the Renters’ Rights Act implementation now behind us, and the 200th edition of my newsletter due on 26 June, it felt like the right moment to find out a bit more about the 18,000+ people who subscribe to my newsletter. So I ran a short, anonymous survey of 10 questions.
Nine were tick-box: the reader’s interest in the private rented sector, whether they’re a landlord and the size of their portfolio, their use of letting agents, which membership organisations they belong to, and how they first came across The Independent Landlord.
I closed with one optional open question: “Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?”
A little over 900 people replied, and a good number answered that last question at length. Some gave warm feedback on the blog, the membership, the newsletter and my bestselling book, The Good Landlord Handbook. But many used it to tell me what’s actually on their minds: the Renters’ Rights Act, EPCs, Making Tax Digital, and how it feels to be a private landlord in 2026.
The comments are a form of barometer for the private rented sector in England.
I’m well aware that 900 replies is a small slice of the landlords in England, though it’s not far off the 1,000 to 2,000 you’d find in a national opinion poll. And it’s a particular slice. The people who responded tended to have larger portfolios, were more likely to self-manage, and were far more likely to belong to a landlord association than the average landlord.
This isn’t therefore a read on the whole of the private rented sector, but on its most engaged end: people engaged enough to subscribe to a specialist newsletter written by a former corporate solicitor, and then click through to complete a survey.
And it matters, because what comes through isn’t the usual venting you see in the landlord forums. It shows a private rented sector under real strain, with landlords still trying to do right by their tenants.
As over 900 people took the time to share their thoughts with me, I feel duty-bound to bring them to a wider audience.
The Independent Landlord 2026 survey, at a glance
Who responded to The Independent Landlord 2026 survey?
Before getting into the detail of the feedback, it’s useful to see who actually responded to the survey:
- Around 90% of respondents were landlords.
- Letting agents made up roughly 5%, including those who were both landlords and agents.
- A smaller group were other property professionals: mortgage brokers, buy-to-let lenders, suppliers, software providers, chartered surveyors, housing charities, and local and central government officers.
Size of portfolio
The overwhelming majority (73%) of the landlords who responded to The Independent Landlord Survey had more than one rental property, with 24% having six or more. Almost half (49%) had 2-5 properties.
This pattern is broadly similar to that of the English Private Landlord Survey (EPLS) published in 2025, the government’s national survey of landlords who have registered tenancy deposits in England.
However, there is one clear difference in that my categories and theirs don’t line up exactly. I’ve kept single-property landlords as a category of their own.
The difference is at the smaller end. In the EPLS, 45% of landlords own just one property. Among my subscribers, single-property landlords are a smaller group, at 27%. In the EPLS, 17% of the landlords surveyed had 6 or more properties, compared to 24% in my survey.
My subscribers leaned a little more towards portfolio landlords than the EPLS, which is probably what you’d expect from people engaged enough to subscribe to a specialist newsletter for landlords and property professionals.
But the broad pattern holds: both surveys show a sector made up overwhelmingly of landlords with small and medium portfolios, with the largest landlords with 21 or more properties a small minority of 5%.
How landlords manage their portfolio
My subscribers are a notably hands-on group with almost two-thirds (63%) self-managing everything without using agents. 21% use an agent to manage the property, and 13% use a mix of the two. A small number (3%) run their own lettings operation.
This sits a little above the national picture. In the EPLS, 52% of landlords used no agent to let or manage, with 43% using agent letting services and 18% agent management services. However, as the EPLS acknowledges, these figures underestimate the number of landlords who use agents as landlords who used an agent to register their deposit were not included in these figures.
Taking that all into account, the landlords who responded to my survey are less likely to use an agent than the average.
Membership of landlord associations
59% of the landlords who responded to the survey did not belong to a landlord association.
To look at the figures another way, 41% of those who responded did belong to a landlord association, and of those who did belong to a landlord association, 86% belonged to the NRLA.
This is considerably higher than the national average, where only approximately 5% of private landlords belong to a landlord association.
Landlords in their own words
In this section, I include some quotes from the last question. (Note that I’ve edited them lightly to remove details that might identify the respondents).
Accidental landlords
Many didn’t set out to be landlords, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about doing it right, even if they are looking to sell in the future:
I’m an accidental landlord. We wanted to buy a new-build house for ourselves but couldn’t sell so decided to remortgage and rent out. Expect to try to sell again when our present tenants want to leave. Want to do things right in the meantime though.
I’m an ‘accidental’ landlord after a property was left to me in a will. It’s been a steep learning curve navigating all the responsibilities & legislation surrounding the private rental sector. The property had existing tenants, so I had to get up to speed very quickly! I wouldn’t be a landlord through choice and will only continue to be one until the existing tenants decide to move or regulations become too problematic.
My one tenanted property is soon to be vacated. The pressures on landlords is now out of hand, restrictive and becoming a burden for ‘accidental’ landlords in my view. When vacant I will be selling.
A sense of pride in offering a quality service
One of the clearest threads in the replies is pride in the service they offer.
A good number of people described themselves, unprompted, as good landlords, and they meant something definite by it: properties kept to a high standard, repairs sorted the same day, rents often held below the market, the same tenants for years.
However, this is often coupled with a weariness, because some of those who are taking the most care feel as if they are being tarred with the same brush as the careless or even criminal landlords. One traced the “demonisation” back to the “right to buy” reducing the size of the social rented sector.
Here are a few examples:
We maintain our properties to a high standard and aim to be good landlords […] the key is to ensure every aspect is at a high standard: the property, inspections, agreement, support to tenants, communication.
I… (usually) enjoy the interaction with my tenants. I currently have a lovely family with two small dogs and a cat.
Over 40 years as a landlord with dozens of satisfied tenants and only 4 evictions in all those years. I used to really enjoy being a landlord but not any longer.
I have growing expenses as small landlord looking after long standing tenants with low income (with one of them a vulnerable young adult) in rural area, so also keeping rents below market value and having to count every penny.
Those like me, and I’m sure you will be aware there are more than a few of us, are practically providing a social service, which we choose to do with love and care.
But we are often the ones who pay for it the most as we very often don’t have the spare cash to continue absorbing rising costs of repairs and bureaucratic requirements (and we’re also normally the ones who reply to our tenants within the hour and action their calls immediately).
I’m a good responsible landlord with longstanding tenants – 2 beautiful homes at fair rent. I always fix any issues immediately.
To my knowledge, most private landlord are good and provide a good service to tenants. However there are a few rogues who try to cheat tenants of their deposit and the government should take action against them and not make life difficult for all small landlords.
The strain of keeping up with the changes
If one feeling runs through the replies, it’s that of being overwhelmed. This isn’t by any single rule, so much as the number of them arriving at once. The Renters’ Rights Act, Making Tax Digital, the EPC proposals, the PRS Database, the Ombudsman: each comes with its own deadlines and paperwork, and together they stack up faster than many people can take in.
For a small landlord fitting this around a job, or doing it in retirement, the worry isn’t only the cost. It’s the fear of getting something wrong without realising, and then receiving a large civil penalty for it.
It is increasingly becoming more and more difficult with MTD, PRS database, RR Act, EPC changes, Ombudsman – adding cost and complexity.
TERRIFIED OF MTD. Seriously don’t even have a computer, just an ipad and will have to be doing this for the next tax return.
I don’t understand why Government are doing their level best to make things so unnecessarily hard for the PRS, both landlords and tenants alike.
I am concerned that the new rules, the extra administration requirements and additional taxation will force me into a position where I consider the PRS no longer a good investment and have to sell up. It might seem laudable to give tenants all these new ‘rights’ but it won’t benefit them if small landlords like me start exiting the sector.
I’d like to see more advice about how to improve as a landlord and maximise profits by being a positive force for good, rather than the media perception of the pariah landlord.
Why are landlords thinking of selling up?
Some landlords are thinking of selling up when their tenants leave, whereas one would like to sell, but feels trapped because of the cladding and fire safety crisis.
I am looking to exit the market as a vacancy becomes available, due to the hostile environment this government has created which will hit both tenants and landlords. Given that an investor can get 4%+ risk free, being a landlord is no longer worth it.
I have student let houses and I’m a very good responsive landlord who fixes every issue very quickly. However this new renters rights bill is too much for me so I’ve sold one house recently and the others are going on the market now.
The new laws have scuppered the student letting side of my business. I’m waiting a year and then will probably turn them to normal lets. Plus I’m 65 so I’m selling one a year.
There are so many of us, all with our pensions locked into a property they can’t sell because of the cladding and fire safety crisis – but terrified that the gov will see that as an opportunity to identify us as ‘rich landlords’ and find ways to tax us heavily for that.
We are actively reducing our portfolio – when a tenant decides to move on, we sell the property – partly due to being in our 70s, partly due to increasingly onerous legislation
A willingness to adapt and upskill
For all the strain, a good many landlords are meeting the changes head on rather than heading for the exit.
Faced with the same rules that are pushing some out, there are many who are adapting to the new environment. They have decided that the answer to stricter rules is to take a more professional approach. This means learning about the new requirements and working out exactly what they need to do differently.
A number single out how my book, The Good Landlord Handbook, and membership of The Independent Landlord Hub have helped them, but this is not a “testimonial” post (not really my style). Instead, I’m sharing some examples of the comments on upskilling:
[I’ve] decided to keep my rental properties and… carry on… to be ready for new regulations.
[I now have] the confidence to continue to let our flat. We couldn’t sell and were worried about the legislative changes.
Now I’m retired I am upskilling… and learning how to do landlording properly.
What landlords say about letting agents
A good letting agent is valued
Not every landlord wants to self-manage, and plenty who responded had no wish to. What came through from those happy with their agent was how much it turned on trust: once they’d found someone reliable, handing over the work felt like a relief rather than a risk.
What struck me was how few had simply delegated and walked away. Several had built their own arrangements, keeping the parts they wanted to do and paying for the parts they didn’t, some right down to the fee.
Those landlords aren’t passive, they’re discerning, and the hybrid arrangements show it.
This is how it should be, especially now that the tenancy reforms in the Renters’ Rights Act is in force, introducing so many civil penalties for breaches. Landlords can no longer “let and forget”.
I have 5 properties with the agent doing the tenant find and legal checks, I do the maintenance and rent increases. I now keep detailed records.
BTW I have a really lovely agent!
I am a ‘hands off’ landlord: happy to pay my letting agent to do all the hard legwork for which I pay them good money. […] I ‘retired’ from the management completely by handing over to an agent once I found one I could trust.
I only have one property (my former home). I use a reliable letting agent… In this anti-landlord climate, it is essential. I could not survive without this structure because, when things go wrong, things go horribly wrong… [the agent] was incredibly supportive. However, I manage the day to day running myself.
There is another model which I do: doing a lot of self-management (organising repairs etc. after tenants contact me, so avoiding agents’ mark-ups) while also having managing agents to do some things (rent collection, inspections) where some independence is useful (at 6% rather than the usual 12% locally). We tend to do any checkouts together, as agents can and do miss things.
Where letting agents fall short
The criticism, where it came, was measured rather than angry. The recurring point wasn’t that agents are “bad” as such, but that an agent runs a business, and a business’s interests don’t always line up with the landlord’s, and concerns about unfair terms.
For some, that gap was reason enough to take the work back in-house, and self-manage.
I have been let down by letting agents, but they are running their own business, and their profitability doesn’t always coincide with [landlord] best interests.
I decided to self-manage my existing rental property after receiving many unfair contracts from letting agents for a fully managed let service.
What did the letting agents say?
Fewer letting agents left comments than landlords, and most who did wrote simply to say thank you.
However, a few reflected on the sector from the other side of the relationship, as the people applying the new rules across many landlords’ properties at once.
Two stood out: one on the gap between a personally qualified agent working in an agency that does not belong to a professional association, and one on the weight of licensing and enforcement on those trying to do things properly:
I am ARLA Propertymark qualified but my agency is not so I hold the necessary competence to work in this industry personally.
From the reality on the ground, recent landlord legislation and licensing enforcement do not feel balanced or tenant-focused. Disproportionate fines for minor issues or admin errors, harsh licence conditions, and the way some councils enforce them show a system that often feels punitive, revenue-driven, and damaging to good landlords and agents trying to comply.
Final thoughts
Pulling it together, the picture is of a private rented sector under real pressure that is still trying to do the right thing by their tenants.
What comes through most is how many people take pride in being good landlords, providing decent homes for fair rents, with long-term tenants, repairs done without fuss, and a real willingness to learn what the new rules ask of them.
The landlords who responded to The Independent Landlord Survey are not, in the main, reluctant amateurs with a flat they couldn’t sell. They tend to be landlords with more than one property, who self-manage, and who belong to a landlord association: the engaged, capable end of the PRS.
That changes how we read the strain. If the landlords struggling were careless or unwilling, it could be argued the system is doing its job, raising the bar and moving on those who shouldn’t be letting at all.
But that isn’t what these replies show. The ones wavering are often those who are doing it properly: providing good homes on the right side of the law, and trying to keep up with every change.
Having good, responsible landlords leave is not the same thing as having bad landlords leave. The latter is government policy working. The former is the sector losing the very landlords that the government says it wants to keep, and who Matthew Pennycook has said have “nothing to fear” from the reforms.
Good landlords and good tenants want the same thing: a home that is secure and well looked after.
The risk is that the good landlords who have been the most committed to providing exactly that are the ones who are reluctantly thinking about calling it a day.
A big thank you to all of my subscribers who replied to the survey.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
The Good Landlord Handbook
This blog post shares the results of The Independent Landlord 2026 Survey.
Landlords and letting agents who are looking for practical guidance on how to operate in the Renters’ Rights Era, read my book ‘The Good Landlord Handbook’:
🔹 #1 bestseller on Amazon
🔹 Covers every stage of a tenancy
🔹 Renters’ Rights Act integrated throughout
🔹 “A true landlording bible“
Thank you for taking the time to write this thoughtful and interesting feedback from your survey’s results.
I think the survey and your analysis accurately reflects current trends. As a landlady of nearly 40 years and approaching my 80s, I confirm that enough is enough. All joy over the years in providing good homes is now outweighed by disproportionate legislative and administrative demands – the prospect of MTD is the last straw!
Well written replies to the survey results. Interesting to see your analysis of landlords status in the PRS with the breakdown of numbers in the sector. The comments you have lifted from the respondents answers all help us to think of our own relationship with tenants and the consequences of the outcomes. Thank you for your time and efforts
This is as I’ve come to expect from all your work an excellent survey with conclusions that are data driven which is so refreshing. That said the conclusions are very disturbing because it means that leaving the sector in orderly way which is a rational thing to do for people wishing to depart will reduce supply on an ongoing basis. I do hope influencers will read your survey and act upon it but sadly I have my doubts because the private rental sector is part of political football. Many many thanks for all your efforts. The blog is a great read and a fantastic sense of what is going on.
As usual Suzanne you have succinctly summerised the situation. Very thorough and thought provoking, and I agree with all the comments. I’m not sure if we’re ‘waving’ or ‘drowning’….
Sorry but I didn’t see the survey as I was away in the US visiting family. Is it too late to do it?
The link from last week’s newsletter should still work
Very interesting, and as per your final thoughts I think shows some extra stress and strain in the system for good landlords who keep quality rentals which will in time unfortunately reduce the number in the qualty private rental sector I suspect, which is the opposite of the intention.
A tenants survey on the effects of the RRA on them in about a years time when it’s effects start to show up more would also be very interesting. Could landlords be asked to forward a survey link to their tenants perhaps? Would it be legal?
Hi Suzanne, I did fill this in as I usually respond to LL questionnaires so our voices can be heard- collectively. What was clear from the feedback was how many LLs (probably 60+ like me who have built up a self-managed portfolio) want to exit not right now but in a years time so whilst RRA may not have had a big bang effect on supply it seems like rents will be under pressure in the years to come even with the existing population.
Thank you for taking the time to organise and deliver the results from the survey with a good selection of the feedback .
So many of the comments reflect how I feel at the moment .
For the first time I am coming across joint tenants falling out and serving the two months notice – often unbeknown to their flatmate! This is putting tenants who share in a very vulnerable position and potentially losing their homes if they cannot afford to rent alone or who are wary of finding flatmates who they may not go on with. Do you have experience of this?
Joint tenants have always been able to serve a notice to quit that ends the tenancy for all. The RRA didn’t change that. What it did change was that there are no more fixed terms, which means an unhappy tenant doesn’t have to wait before serving a notice to quit. Some would say it’s good for tenant choice, as they can choose to leave when they want, and are not bound to the others.
Thank you Suzanne, very useful and interesting feedback. Your ‘final thoughts’ in particular are to the point and I sincerely hope that Mr Pennycock reads this.
Thank you Suzanne,
I was a Private Landlord with many properties, residential and domestic. At now nearly 80 and I decided to sell up at the end of last year. In the last 30 years, I have only had one bad tenant who took advantage of my good nature. i am still a director of the family property company which now operates only one rented property with an estate agent doing the day-to-day work. As a trustee of a charity, I look after a building with both commercial and residential tenants, again mostly through an estate agent. The points I am making is that the hassle at my age is not worth having privately and it is essential to find the right estate agent in the present anti-landlord environment.
Thank you for your book and all the advice I am still using to stay up to date in the market.
The Independent Landlord 2026 subscriber survey highlights key trends shaping the rental market, including landlord priorities, property management challenges, and investment strategies.
The findings provide valuable insights into how independent landlords are adapting to changing regulations, tenant expectations, and market conditions.