Britain’s private rented sector has lost about 834,800 landlord-owned homes over the past decade, but available rental stock has still risen this year as build-to-rent operators push more listings directly to tenants. For landlords, that is the uncomfortable split now opening in the market: traditional PRS stock is shrinking, yet headline supply is no longer falling in step.
TwentyCi’s latest Property & Homemover report says 18.6 percent of PRS stock has exited over 10 years, with the sell-off accelerating as the Renters’ Rights Act moved closer. At the same time, June 2026 recorded the first year-on-year increase in available rental stock in five years.
That matters now because landlords are hearing two messages at once – that investors are still leaving, and that rental supply is improving. Both can be true. The catch is that the extra stock is coming from a different part of the market, and it does not necessarily replace the kind of homes smaller private landlords have been selling.
TwentyCi says landlord-owned rental stock is still shrinking
The report says 834,800 landlord homes have left the PRS over the last decade, while 2025 alone saw 181,000 former rental properties sold. TwentyCi links that timing to the long run-in to the Renters’ Rights Act, which became law last year and largely took effect in May.
For landlords, the figure is useful because it gives scale to a trend that has often been discussed in anecdotal terms. This is not just a slow portfolio reshuffle. It points to a steady reduction in traditional landlord-owned supply, especially in areas where regulatory cost, tax pressure and weak margins are already squeezing confidence.
Build-to-rent is masking the loss of private landlord homes
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s recent report on Hamptons warning that failed sales could keep 100,000 homes out of the rental market and our coverage of JLL’s finding that build-to-rent investment hit £3bn in the first half. The latest TwentyCi data helps explain why both trends can sit side by side: institutional rental stock is growing while smaller landlord stock is still draining away.
In its Q2 2026 Property & Homemover report, TwentyCi says build-to-rent listings were up 22 percent in Q2 against the same period last year. That is enough to lift visible rental availability even while private landlords continue to sell.
The practical warning for landlords is that headline supply numbers may start to look less supportive even in places where independent investors are retreating. A healthier-looking national stock picture could hide a more competitive local market for tenant demand in city-centre schemes, while suburban and smaller-town supply remains tight. It also raises a longer-term question about who sets pricing and standards if more of the market moves toward institutional operators.
What this means for landlords
- If you’re weighing a sale: do not assume stronger headline rental supply means your local market is less constrained – the extra stock may be concentrated in build-to-rent schemes.
- Watch for: more divergence between institutional rental growth in core cities and tighter supply in traditional landlord markets.
- Bottom line: private landlord exits are still materially reducing PRS stock, even if national availability figures look less bleak than they did a year ago.
Editor’s view
The most interesting part of this report is not the exit figure on its own. It is the fact that build-to-rent is now big enough to blur what landlords and tenants think the wider rental market is doing. That could make national supply headlines look calmer than many local landlord markets really are.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 17 July 2026
Sources: TwentyCi
Related reading: Hamptons says failed sales could keep 100,000 homes out of the rental market
