Every few weeks another buy-to-let landlord walks into my office with the same opening line: "I think I'm done." Usually it's someone who bought a one or two-bed flat off Clapham Common or near Abbeville Village years ago, has had a decent run, and is now quietly worn down by the paperwork, the mortgage rates and the sense that the rules keep moving against them. This week the numbers caught up with the mood on my sofa.
The Deposit Protection Service's latest review found that 56% of landlords now plan to sell some or all of their portfolio, up from 53% last October. Pair that with Benham and Reeves reporting that just 3.9% of landlords intend to expand, and you have a private rented sector that is shrinking at one end and barely growing at the other. The English Private Landlord Survey adds the detail that matters locally: landlords with five or more properties account for 49% of all private tenancies, despite being only 17% of landlords. In other words, a small number of committed players hold up a big share of the market, and when they start heading for the door, the effect is outsized.
Down here that plays out flat by flat. Clapham, Balham and Stockwell are stuffed with the exact stock these landlords own - period conversions and purpose-built one and two-beds that were the classic first buy-to-let. When one of them sells, the flat often goes to an owner-occupier rather than another investor, so it leaves the rental pool for good. Multiply that across a few streets and you can see why renters near the Common tell me every viewing feels like a scrum. Void periods have actually fallen to around 21 days nationally, which is another way of saying good rental flats are being snapped up almost as fast as they appear.
Here's my honest take, and it cuts both ways. If you're a landlord who has genuinely had enough, selling into today's market is not the disaster some headlines suggest - owner-occupier demand for a well-presented Clapham flat is real, and you may do better selling with vacant possession to a homebuyer than to a nervous investor. But if your numbers still work, think hard before you join the stampede. Fewer rental flats plus steady tenant demand is, bluntly, a supportive backdrop for the landlords who stay. The ones selling in a panic may be handing a stronger position to the ones who hold their nerve.
Either way, the worst move is to drift. If you own a flat round here and you're on the fence, get a proper, current valuation and a straight read on your yield before you decide - not a guess based on what your neighbour got in 2021.
Are you a Clapham landlord weighing up whether to sell or sit tight this year? I talk this through with owners most weeks and I'm happy to give you a straight steer. Email me at jeroen@claphampropertyblog.com or call 07837 093554.
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