The Cumberland Building Society has launched its first Holiday Let Index, giving specialist lenders and landlords a new snapshot of confidence, lending conditions and investor behaviour in a market that has spent the past year under tax and regulatory pressure.
The report, produced with Pegasus Insight and backed by Twenty7tec search and product-availability data, is based on responses from 125 participants across England, Scotland and Wales, including brokers, private landlords and holiday-let homeowners. Cumberland said the findings challenged some of the gloom around the sector and pointed instead to a market still offering opportunities for well-positioned investors.
Specialist lenders do not usually launch a dedicated index into a sector they think is shutting down. The stronger signal here is that holiday lets remain active enough to justify fresh market tracking, even as tax changes and tighter local rules have made the model harder to run.
Specialist lender sees enough depth to track the market
The new index is designed to map market confidence, investor behaviour, lending activity and the effect of recent tax and regulatory changes on the holiday-let sector. Cumberland said it also wanted to understand how guest behaviour is changing and where brokers think the market is heading next.
That points to a more selective market rather than a dead one. Investors still interested in short-stay property are likely to be looking more closely at financing, local demand patterns and compliance risk than they did during the post-pandemic boom, but the launch suggests lenders still see a workable pipeline of business.
Grant Seaton, head of intermediary lending at The Cumberland Building Society, said: “Given everything the holiday let sector has experienced over the past few years, it would have been easy to assume investor confidence had fallen sharply. What our research actually revealed was a more mixed picture, with several findings challenging some of the assumptions around the market.”
He added that the building society wanted to hear directly from brokers, landlords and homeowners to build a clearer picture of how recent changes were shaping decisions and where opportunities still existed.
Holiday let pressure has not removed investor interest
The Holiday Let Index arrives at a time when the sector is still adjusting to higher borrowing costs, tougher tax treatment and rising scrutiny in some local markets. That backdrop has encouraged a lot of broad-brush claims that holiday lets are losing their appeal, but Cumberland’s move suggests the reality is more uneven.
Landlord Knowledge recently reported that Hanley had entered the holiday let mortgage market with lending up to 80 percent loan to value, which was another sign that parts of specialist finance still see demand. The same pattern can be seen in wider buy-to-let lending, where Landbay has continued cutting rates on specialist products rather than pulling back from more complex property segments.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s recent coverage of Hanley’s expansion into holiday let lending, which suggested competition had not disappeared from the specialist end of the market. Cumberland’s index adds another layer to that picture by showing lenders now want more structured evidence on how landlords, brokers and owners are responding to change.
The underlying Holiday Let Index from The Cumberland is light on headline percentages in its public summary, but the launch itself is still useful. It suggests lenders believe there is enough resilience, product demand and investor interest to justify closer tracking of the market rather than treating holiday lets as a fading niche.
Why landlords should read this as a market signal
For landlords, the main takeaway is not that every holiday let area will perform well. It is that lenders and brokers still think the market is alive enough to warrant dedicated research, specialist advice and product monitoring. That is a better signal than generic claims that the whole sector is either booming or broken.
The sharper question now is where the viable pockets of demand remain once local saturation, rules and finance costs are taken into account. Investors with strong occupancy, a clear local offer and finance that still stacks up may find the market more disciplined than before, but not necessarily less attractive.
What this means for landlords
- If you already own a holiday let: expect lenders and brokers to focus more on performance, local demand and long-term viability than broad sector hype.
- If you are looking to buy: the market may still offer openings, but location, occupancy risk and local regulation matter more than ever.
- Watch for: more specialist lender activity and better-quality market data rather than simple headline claims about the sector.
- Bottom line: Cumberland’s new index suggests holiday lets still have enough depth to attract lender attention, but landlords need a more disciplined investment case than they did a few years ago.
Editor’s view
Holiday lets are no longer a casual side bet. The investors most likely to do well now are the ones treating the sector like a business, not a trend. Cumberland’s launch matters because lenders usually follow live demand, not nostalgia.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 25 August 2026
Sources: The Cumberland Building Society, Pegasus Insight, Twenty7tec
Related reading: Hanley enters holiday let mortgages at 80% LTV
