Nine in 10 landlords say the balance of power in renting has shifted towards tenants over the past two years, but 78 percent of recent renters still said they found fewer homes than expected when they looked for somewhere to live, according to LRG’s Spring 2026 Lettings Report.
The report, based on responses from 650 landlords and tenants across England and Wales, points to a market where legal protections have moved in one direction while practical choice has not kept pace. LRG said 61 percent of landlords believe power has shifted strongly towards tenants and 28 percent said it has shifted slightly, while only 1 percent thought it had moved strongly towards landlords.
For landlords, the immediate news is not just that the Renters’ Rights Act has altered the rules, but that supply still looks too thin to ease the pressure on rents and tenant mobility in a meaningful way.
Tenants still struggle to find suitable homes
Among tenants who searched for a rental property in the last two years, 32 percent said affordability was the main barrier and 22 percent said limited availability was the biggest problem. Another 24 percent said they found far less than expected on both fronts.
The squeeze is also showing up in moving decisions. A quarter of tenants said they had wanted to move in the last 12 months but did not. Within that group, 10 percent said they could not afford to move, 6 percent said they could not find anything suitable and 9 percent chose to stay despite wanting to leave. Only 5 percent said they had actually moved.
That sits broadly in line with official figures. ONS data for April showed average monthly private rents across the UK rising to £1,381, while affordability data for England has already shown median private renters spending well above the 30 percent threshold often used as a benchmark.
Allison Thompson, chief lettings officer at Leaders, part of LRG, said landlords and tenants were both describing the same market accurately, but from different positions. She said landlords were feeling the weight of legislation while tenants were still dealing with a shortage of homes and limited practical choice.
RRA reforms change the rules, not the stock level
LRG links much of the shift in landlord sentiment to the Renters’ Rights Act, which has abolished fixed-term tenancies, ended Section 21 and restricted advance rent. Those changes have altered the operating environment for landlords, but they have not added stock to the market.
That helps explain why a more tenant-friendly legal framework can exist at the same time as persistent scarcity. Rightmove has reported that available rental stock is higher than a year ago, while Zoopla has said earnings are now outpacing rent growth. Even so, both measures still point to supply sitting well below longer-term norms.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s earlier report on LRG finding six in 10 tenants are renting for longer than planned, which pointed to a market where delayed homeownership was already feeding sustained rental demand. More recently, Landlord Knowledge reported that ONS rent inflation had eased but rents were still rising faster than many households can comfortably absorb.
Landlords who want to read the full findings can review LRG’s Spring 2026 Lettings Report alongside the wider rent and affordability data. The practical takeaway is that regulation may have shifted negotiating power on paper, but demand and restricted supply are still doing most of the work in the real market.
What this means for landlords
- If you’re reviewing rents: legal power may have shifted, but persistent supply shortages still support firm pricing in many areas.
- If you’re reletting soon: tenants may have more protections, yet many are still competing for limited stock and prioritising affordability.
- Watch for: whether stronger supply growth finally appears later in 2026, because that would matter more to rents than sentiment alone.
- Bottom line: the market may feel fairer to tenants on paper, but landlords are still operating in an undersupplied sector.
Editor’s view
The important split here is between rules and reality. Ministers can rebalance rights, but until supply improves, landlords and tenants will both keep feeling squeezed for different reasons.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 24 June 2026
Sources: LRG, ONS, Rightmove, Zoopla, Landlord Knowledge archive
Related reading: LRG: six in ten tenants are renting for longer than planned
