Kensington’s BTL Barometer reveals a widening gap between landlord sentiment and their ability to access mortgage finance
Four out of five limited company landlords remain confident about the UK rental market, but confidence alone is not driving the decisions they are making. The gap between what landlords feel and what they are actually doing tells a story, one with direct consequences for brokers.
Kensington Mortgages’ November 2026 Buy-to-Let (BTL) Barometer, which surveys landlords who hold property through limited companies, shows sentiment has softened meaningfully since April. Confidence in the rental market outlook has fallen from 89% to 80%. Expectations for yield growth have dropped from 84% to 71%. Anticipated rental demand has slipped from 80% to 65%.
None of these numbers signal a market in collapse but the direction of travel is clear, and it is consistent across every metric.
The finance access problem brokers should be watching
The sharpest number in the survey is not the confidence figure. It is this: the share of landlords who say accessing BTL mortgage finance is easy has fallen from 74% to 42% in a single survey cycle. That is a 32-point drop in seven months.
This arrives at a moment when the product landscape has actually widened. Three-quarters of BTL purchases are now completed through limited companies, and lenders have responded by launching more products for this structure. The growing disconnect between product availability and perceived access suggests the problem is not supply; it is complexity.
Limited company borrowing involves stress testing, company set-up, and lender criteria that remain opaque for many landlords, particularly those making the shift from personal ownership.
Allison Buckley, Chief Executive Officer of Kensington Mortgages, acknowledged the tension: “As landlords balance investment in their existing properties with changing regulatory, taxation, and financing considerations, specialist lenders and brokers have an important role to play. Flexible financing solutions and specialist expertise will remain key to helping professional landlords navigate these challenges.”
Landlord concerns about mortgage costs and tax changes remain the dominant themes in the market, and those concerns are creating demand for guidance, not just products.
Fewer purchases, more remortgages
The investment shift is also changing what brokers can expect from their landlord clients. Just 11% now plan to expand their portfolios over the next 12 months, down from 38% in the spring. More than three-quarters — 77%, up from 53% — plan to hold what they have.
That pivot from expansion to consolidation does not mean inactivity. Almost all landlords surveyed (99%) have made improvements to their properties over the past year, with energy efficiency upgrades among the most common.
The EPC reform agenda, which requires landlords to reach a minimum rating before renting out properties under proposed regulation, is now influencing nearly all (96%) landlords’ investment decisions. Kensington’s own lending data supports this: EPC C-rated properties accounted for 40.8% of its lending value in 2026 so far, up 2.3 percentage points year-on-year.
For brokers, this means the pipeline is not drying up; it is shifting. Fewer purchase transactions and more conversations about remortgaging, further advances, and funding for property improvements. UK Finance data shows £49 billion of fixed-rate BTL mortgages are due to mature within a year, across approximately 250,000 mortgages. That is a substantial remortgage opportunity sitting in front of the market.
Regulation — same concern, same position
Regulatory anxiety has barely moved. Three-quarters of landlords expect the regulatory environment to become more challenging over the next year, only slightly lower than the 79% recorded in April. Almost all (99%) say proposals such as council tax and stamp duty reform would influence their investment plans. When a survey produces a figure that close to unanimity, it reflects genuine pressure, not statistical noise.
The irony is that the market has not, in fact, become dramatically harder to navigate since April — rates have eased, product choice has grown, and running cost inflation has slowed. Yet landlord perceptions of difficulty have hardened. That gap between perception and reality is where specialist brokers operate best.
What the data says about the structure
The limited company structure continues its steady march towards dominance. 68% of respondents now hold their entire portfolio through a limited company, up from 53% in the spring. The average landlord in this survey owns 12 properties. More than half (58%) have company portfolios where half or fewer of their properties carry mortgage financing — a sign of significant equity and financial sophistication.
Family residential properties remain the most common holding (35%), but interest in holiday lets (up from 16% to 26%) and student lets (up from 12% to 23%) has grown notably. For brokers advising on specialist products, the demand is broadening.
The external data supports the same conclusion. UK Finance mortgage lending statistics and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) mortgage lending data both point to a BTL market that is evolving structurally rather than contracting, and that structural shift runs directly through the broker channel. The BTL market is not retreating. It is becoming more professional, more complex, and more reliant on specialist advice.
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