Survey finds landlords still raising rents despite once-a-year cap
More than half of UK landlords who have raised rents in the past year did so because market rates had overtaken their own, according to a survey published by mortgage specialist Mortgage Lane, even as the Renters' Rights Act narrows how often they can act.
The survey of 113 UK landlords, conducted between May and July 2026, found 29.2% had increased rent in the past 12 months, while a further 25.7% said they were planning to do so. Just over a third, 36.3%, said they had not raised rents at all.
Asked why, landlords cited two reasons in equal measure: market rent sitting below comparable properties and rising mortgage costs, each named by 17.9% of respondents. Maintenance costs followed at 15.2%, with tax, EPC and other compliance costs also cited.
Portfolio and property mix
The majority of respondents, 61.1%, own between four and five rental properties, with a further 15% holding between six and ten. Scotland accounted for the largest share of buy-to-let stock at 18.6%, ahead of the North East at 11.5% and the South East at 10.6%.
Joseph Lane, founder of Mortgage Lane, said the Renters' Rights Act is squeezing how landlords absorb rising costs. He said the days of "simply passing higher costs on to tenants are becoming more difficult," since landlords can now raise rents only once a year and tenants can challenge increases that exceed open-market levels.
Independent data shows a mixed picture
Official data suggests the market's response to the Act has been uneven so far. UK private rents rose 3.7% annually to £1,393 in July 2026, up from 3.3% in June, according to the Office for National Statistics. The ONS's most recent bulletin, covering August, put annual growth at 3.8%, with the North East and North West recording the steepest regional increases at 5.8% and the South East the softest at 3.0%.
That national trend contrasts with early signs among sitting tenants specifically. Analysis by estate agent Hamptons, published by Mortgage Solutions, found rent rises on existing tenancies fell 23% in May 2026 compared with the same month in 2025, in the first month the Act was in force. Hamptons projected that 31% of sitting tenants would see a rent rise across the full year, down from 40% over the 12 months to May 2025, attributing the shift to landlords being restricted to one rent review per year under Section 13 notices.
Separate research by buy-to-let lender Landbay, conducted ahead of the Act's introduction, found more than 40% of landlords planned to raise rents specifically in response to the legislation, adding an average of £74 a month to tenant costs, with landlords holding four to 10 properties most likely to do so.
Taken together, the figures suggest brokers should expect landlord clients to keep adjusting rents where mortgage and compliance costs allow, even as the annual-increase limit slows the pace for tenants who stay put. Mortgage Lane's Lane said rising mortgage, maintenance and compliance costs could increasingly be absorbed from landlords' margins rather than passed to tenants outright.
