The latest regional snapshot data from the Pegasus Insights Landlord Trends research, commissioned by Foundation, provides a useful sense check on where the BTL market sits today.
While there are clearly differences across the UK, the overall picture is far more positive than many might believe, particularly when it comes to landlord confidence, profitability and behaviour.
Across the UK, the vast majority of landlords remain in profit, and that in itself is an important starting point for brokers. A profitable landlord base is an active landlord base, and one that is far more likely to continue borrowing, refinancing and reshaping portfolios over time.
What’s perhaps more interesting, however, is how that profitability is being delivered, and how landlord strategies are evolving region by region.
Profitability remains strong, but looks different across regions
There’s no single regional model that defines success in the current market, which is why it’s important to avoid broad assumptions about where opportunities lie.
In London, for example, landlords are benefiting from significantly higher rents and asset values, even if yields are tighter. This continues to support long-term investment strategies built around capital strength and income resilience.
By contrast, regions such as the North West, North East and Wales are delivering stronger yields, often well above the UK average, and this is clearly supporting high levels of profitability and confidence in rental income.
These are markets where landlords are likely to be focused more directly on cash flow, and that in turn is helping to sustain ongoing activity and interest in expanding portfolios.
Elsewhere, in regions such as the Midlands and Yorkshire and The Humber, the data points to larger portfolio sizes and more established landlord businesses, which suggests a more professionalised approach to property investment.
These are landlords who are not simply holding assets but actively managing and growing them, often across multiple locations.
Diversification is no longer a secondary strategy
Perhaps the most notable trend within the data is the extent to which landlords are no longer tied to a single region.
When you compare average portfolio sizes with the number of properties held within a landlord’s primary region, it becomes clear that a significant proportion of portfolios now sit outside of what we might deem a landlord’s core geography.
This marks a clear departure from the traditional model where landlords would invest close to home and/or within areas they knew well. Instead, we’re seeing a much more deliberate approach, where landlords are allocating capital across regions in order to balance yield, asset value and risk.
It’s not difficult to understand why.
As mentioned, different regions are delivering different strengths, whether that’s higher yields in the North, stronger rental values in London, or more stable tenant demand in other parts of the country. By spreading investment across these areas, landlords are effectively building more resilient portfolios which are less exposed to the performance of any single market.
Alongside this, there’s also growing variation in property type, with increasing interest in HMOs and multi-unit blocks, which offer the potential for stronger income returns but require a more structured and informed approach to financing.
Confidence is supporting continued activity
Despite the challenges landlords have faced in recent years, the data shows that they still have confidence in the sector, particularly when it comes to rental income and the performance of their own lettings businesses. That confidence is important, because it underpins decision-making.
We’re still seeing landlords buying, albeit at lower levels; in itself, this reflects a degree of portfolio optimisation rather than a lack of appetite. Landlords are making choices about what to hold, what to sell and where to reinvest, and that again speaks to a more mature, business-led mindset.
For brokers, this is a key point. An engaged landlord who is actively reviewing their portfolio is far more likely to require ongoing advice, whether that is around refinancing, restructuring or new acquisitions.
The broker’s role has never been more important
All of this points to a landlord base that is more complex, more diverse and more commercially minded than in previous cycles, and that inevitably places greater demands on advisers.
In general, clients are no longer looking for a single product to fund a single property, but for a funding strategy that can support a broader portfolio, often spanning different regions and property types.
That requires a deeper understanding of lender criteria, greater flexibility in product selection and the ability to structure solutions that work across a range of scenarios.
It’s also where specialist lenders have a clear role to play. At Foundation, we’ve built a BTL proposition that reflects this shift in landlord behaviour, offering the depth and breadth of products needed to support everything from standard single lets through to HMOs, multi-unit properties and more complex income and portfolio cases.
Reasons to remain positive
While it’s important not to ignore the pressures within the market, particularly in regions where margins are tighter, the overall direction of travel is encouraging. Landlords remain profitable, confidence is still evident and, perhaps most importantly, there’s a clear willingness to adapt.
Diversification, both in terms of geography and property type, is a sign of a market that is thinking long term and acting accordingly. For brokers, that creates an environment where the need for support, guidance and expertise is only increasing.
In that context, the current market is not simply one to manage, but one that continues to offer real opportunity for those who are able to engage with landlords as their strategies evolve.
