LatestManchester: tribunal cuts rent £200 a monthManchester: tribunal sets rent £200 a month below what the tenant paid

Should you sell your buy‑to‑let?

That decision is yours, and it depends on your own numbers. What has changed is the ground underneath them. Over the past decade, tax, lending and tenancy rules in England have moved against private landlords, and the latest Budget has added more. Here is what has changed, why it is unlikely to reverse, and how LEXIT helps you weigh your options.

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General information, not tax advice.

Same property, less to keep

Higher-rate taxpayer. £10,000 profit before a £5,000 mortgage interest bill.

Before Section 24 2016/17

You keep £3,000

Tax £2,000

Today 2026/27

You keep £2,000

Tax £3,000

From April 2027 After the Budget

You keep £1,800

Tax £3,200

KeptIncome tax

Illustrative. The 2027 figure assumes the mortgage interest credit follows the new property basic rate of 24%.

Ten years of changes, all in one direction

Buy-to-let worked for a generation because the rules were simple: borrow, let, deduct your costs, and let rents and prices do the rest. Since 2015, almost every change to tax, lending and tenancy law has made that harder.

2026

No-fault evictions end, and a second tax rise

Since 1 May 2026, Section 21 "no-fault" evictions have been abolished in England and private tenancies have become rolling (periodic) tenancies. On 28 October, the Budget raised the new rental income tax rates again.

Select any point on the line to read what changed.

Two Budgets, four extra points of tax on your rent

At the 2025 Budget, the government set rental profits apart from other income and planned to tax them at 2 points more. At the Budget on 28 October 2026, it added another 2 points. From 6 April 2027, individual landlords in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will pay:

Basic-rate taxpayer

20%20%

Higher-rate taxpayer

40%40%

Additional-rate taxpayer

45%45%

Applies to property held in your own name, not through a company. Scotland and Wales can set their own rates on property income.

What it means in pounds

On £10,000 of rental profit, a higher-rate taxpayer pays £4,000 in tax today. From April 2027, it will be £4,400.

That comes on top of Section 24, which already limits relief on mortgage interest to a basic-rate tax credit, so landlords with borrowing feel it more.

Capital gains tax on residential property was left unchanged, at 18% and 24%.

How it adds up

Mortgage interest relief restricted since 2017
A 5% stamp duty surcharge on any further purchase
No Section 21, and tenants on rolling tenancies
Rental income tax up four points in two Budgets

Each change on its own can be absorbed. Together they point one way, and each Budget so far has added to the list rather than taken from it.

This is general information, not tax advice. Speak to a UK tax adviser about your own position.

No rent cap, but every increase can now end up at a tribunal

England has no formal rent cap. But since 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act has changed how and when rents can rise, and many landlords see the result as rent control by the back door.

Once a year, at most

Rent can only go up once in any 12 months, and not at all in the first year of a tenancy.

One route only

Every increase must use the Section 13 process (Form 4A), with at least two months' notice. Rent review clauses in tenancy agreements no longer work.

Tenants can challenge

A tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide the rent before the increase takes effect, and the increase waits until the tribunal decides.

The risk runs one way

The tribunal cannot set a rent higher than the landlord proposed. It can set it lower, and in some cases it has set rents below what the tenant was already paying.

225

market-rent decisions published by the tribunal for September 2026, up from around 40 a month before the new rules began.

Each challenge delays an increase, takes time to defend and puts the final figure in someone else's hands. As more tenants use the route, keeping rents in step with rising costs gets harder.

General information, not legal advice. The rules described apply in England.

Rents set below what tenants already pay

The tribunal cannot go above the landlord's figure, but it can go below the current rent. Recent cases since the Renters' Rights Act came into force on 1 May 2026:

All tribunal decisions

Rents are paid out of incomes, and incomes have stalled

22–34%: real income growth per head in each decade from the 1960s to the 1990s
13%: across the whole of the 2010s
1%: in the 2020s so far, from 2020 to 2025

Rents

A tenant can only pay what their income allows. When incomes stand still, rents can only move so far ahead of them, and the Renters' Rights Act gives tenants in England more room to push back on increases.

Capital values

House prices rest on what buyers can borrow, and lending follows income. Without real income growth, it is harder to see where strong, sustained price growth comes from.

Incomes are not the only driver. Housing shortages, interest rates and local demand all play a part, and some areas will do better than the national picture.

Work through your options, one step at a time

We won't tell you to sell: that is your decision, and one to take with a UK tax adviser, especially on capital gains tax. What we do is take you through a clear process, so you can see every realistic option before you choose.

1
Run your property through LEXIT
LEXIT analyses your property after tax, forecasts how it is likely to perform over the next ten years under today's rules, and shows whether it is underperforming.
2
Find out what portfolio buyers would pay
We take the property to investors who buy tenanted buy-to-let homes, to see what they are likely to pay with the tenant in place. If you like the answer, you have a clean exit. If not, we move to step 3.
3
Look at a structured exit
There are other ways out: a sale to your tenant, or a long lease to an operator, with the long-term income then sold to an investor.
4
Or hold, and run it hard
If none of these makes sense, the right answer may be to keep the property for the long term and get the most from it: tighter costs, the right rent at each annual review, and a clear plan for the years ahead.

If you sell and want to reinvest, our sister company AngelBrics compares UK buy-to-let with Abu Dhabi property, including costs, tax and risks. Read the AngelBrics guide. Capital at risk.

Thinking of selling? Start with your numbers

Run your property through LEXIT to see the ten-year outlook after tax. If selling looks right, we'll take you through what portfolio buyers would pay, the structured exits open to you, and whether holding makes more sense. No obligation, and the decision stays yours.

Founded by Ashley Osborne MRICS, former Head of Residential Property, UK and Asia, at Colliers International. Speak to a UK tax adviser about capital gains tax before you sell.

Talk to us about selling