Today’s four stories split into two neat piles: evidence the private rented sector is settling down, and evidence the compliance load stacked on top of it keeps growing regardless. Rent arrears have hit a record low and the next generation of landlords looks younger and more diverse, while selective licensing schemes have hit a new high and leaseholders still can’t sell a flat without a fight. For a South East practice, the licensing surge is the one with the sharpest edges today.
Selective licensing hits a record high — and one council just showed how hard the enforcement can bite
Licensing compliance firm Kamma’s data, reported by LandlordZone, shows 41 new selective and additional licensing schemes confirmed in 2026 already, close to matching 2025’s record of 42 and a 78 per cent jump on 2024’s total of 23. Live schemes have grown from 94 in January 2022 to 174 today, across 90 of England and Wales’s 361 councils, with London the epicentre at 28 of its 33 boroughs. Kamma chief executive Orla Shields expects “a further 12 to 18 designations by the end of the year,” naming the Renters’ Rights Act as the main driver: councils need better data on their private rented stock, and licensing fees fund the work of gathering it.
At the sharp end of that trend, Property118 reports that North East Lincolnshire Council, which launched its own scheme in April, will charge a £200 late fee on top of the standard £1,000 (£725 for accredited landlords) on anyone missing the six-month application window that closes 8 October. The council says the surcharge reflects “an assessment of the additional work and resources required where landlords fail to submit applications during the six-month application period,” and insists it is “not intended to be punitive” — though landlords who stay unlicensed altogether still face full enforcement and prosecution.
Read together, these describe the same mechanism at two scales: licensing is becoming standard due diligence infrastructure for the whole rented sector, not a niche tool for a handful of London boroughs, and councils are getting sharper about collecting the fee that funds it. Under 6 per cent of England and Wales’s land area is covered so far, but that share is climbing every quarter, and each designation runs for five years.
If you own or are buying a rental property outside an area you already know is licensed, check the local authority’s current and consulted-on designations before you complete, not after a tenant moves in. If you already hold a licence application in a live scheme, calendar the window properly — a £200 lateness penalty on top of the standard fee is a needless own goal, and this case shows councils are increasingly willing to charge for it.
Landlord rent arrears fall to a record low — but the good news isn’t evenly spread
Pegasus Insight’s latest Landlord Trends and Tenant Trends research, covered by Property118, finds 26 per cent of landlords experienced rent arrears in the past year — the lowest rate since tracking began, down from 42 per cent in 2020. The average hides a sharp split by portfolio size: 66 per cent of landlords with 11 or more properties reported arrears against 18 per cent of those with one to ten, and the same pattern holds for voids, with 68 per cent of larger landlords reporting one of seven days or more against 35 per cent of smaller ones. Pegasus Insight director Bethan Cooke said “larger portfolio landlords remain much more exposed to arrears, while voids continue to affect four in 10 landlords.”
This cuts against the flat “landlords are struggling” framing that dominates most Renters’ Rights Act coverage. The typical client I see — someone with one, two, maybe three lettings — sits in the resilient half of this data, not the exposed half, and the two problems deserve different answers when a client asks whether to worry.
If you’re a small-scale landlord being told the sector is collapsing, this data says otherwise for someone your size — don’t let portfolio-level anxiety drive a sale you wouldn’t otherwise make. If you’re a larger portfolio landlord and recognise yourself in the exposed half, a fresh condition survey across the portfolio is a cheaper way to find the next arrears or void risk than waiting for a tenant to reveal it.
Propertymark wants leasehold reform sped up — and its survey data explains why
Propertymark has called on government to accelerate leasehold reform, according to Property118, publishing survey findings that 93 per cent of leaseholders would not buy another leasehold property and 86 per cent had a service charge increase in the last two years, with typical annual charges rising from the £1,000–£2,000 range to £3,000–£4,000. Separately, 78 per cent of agents had pulled at least one listing because it became unsellable as a leasehold, and 40 per cent of members said obtaining lease information from a freeholder now takes more than 15 days. Head of policy Timothy Douglas said “nearly a decade after we first highlighted the problems with leasehold, too many homeowners still navigate a system making their homes difficult, expensive, and sometimes impossible to sell.” Propertymark wants the already-legislated 40-year transition to peppercorn ground rents brought forward, standardised leases, and clearer rules on who pays for building safety remediation.
The 15-day wait for lease information is the detail that lands closest to my own work. A perfectly good building survey on a leasehold flat routinely sits unactioned for weeks because the management pack hasn’t arrived, and a buyer’s patience runs out before the freeholder’s admin does. A flat in a block with unresolved fire safety works is also a different proposition entirely from one with a clean bill of health, and that liability is often unclear at the point a survey is instructed.
If you’re buying a leasehold flat, request the management pack and two years of service charge accounts before instructing a survey, not after a completion date is pencilled in — it’s consistently the slowest part of the chain. If the building has any live or pending remediation works, raise it with your solicitor and surveyor together, since the cost exposure can dwarf anything a standard survey flags.
The next generation of landlords will look nothing like the current one
Buy-to-let lender Rely, part of OSB Group and reported by LandlordZone, forecasts that millennials and Gen Z will make up 62 per cent of landlords within a decade, as Baby Boomers and Generation X’s current 54 per cent share falls to 37 per cent. Female landlords are projected to grow from 36 to 42 per cent of the market and ethnic minority representation to roughly double to 23 per cent. More tellingly, 36 per cent of aspiring next-generation landlords expect to inherit a rental property outright and a further 21 per cent expect to inherit the capital to buy one. OSB Group’s Jon Hall said these landlords will arrive “through inheritance” and “start with smaller portfolios,” treating the asset as family wealth rather than an investment decision.
Worth flagging that this is a lender’s forecast commissioned to sell a story about its own market, not measured fact, so treat the percentages as directional rather than gospel. But the underlying shift — more landlords arriving by inheritance than by choice — rings true and matters practically: someone who inherits a let property mid-tenancy inherits the compliance position too, with no guarantee the previous owner left the EPC, gas safety record or licensing paperwork in order.
If you’ve inherited, or expect to inherit, a rental property, check the compliance basics immediately rather than assume they were handled — a valid EPC, gas and electrical safety certificates, and whether the property sits inside a licensing scheme. Don’t wait for a renewal or complaint to surface a gap that predates your ownership.
What I’d actually do
- Buying or letting outside an area you know well? Check current and consulted-on selective licensing designations before you complete, and diarise the application window if one applies.
- Small-scale landlord worried by exodus headlines? The arrears and voids data says smaller portfolios are the resilient part of the market — don’t let portfolio-level anxiety drive your decision.
- Buying a leasehold flat? Request the management pack and two years of service charge accounts before instructing a survey, and flag any live remediation works to your solicitor and surveyor together.
- Larger portfolio landlord? Consider a condition survey across the portfolio now, rather than waiting for the next void or arrears case to tell you where the risk sits.
- Inherited or about to inherit a let property? Check the EPC, gas and electrical safety records and licensing status immediately — don’t assume the previous owner had it covered.
Today’s notes touch lettings compliance and leasehold conveyancing as much as bricks and mortar — the practice covers full building surveys and EPCs across the South East for landlords, buyers and sellers weighing exactly these decisions. Get in touch.
Small print. General commentary, not advice for your specific circumstances — regulations, schemes and deadlines change, and your property is not the average property. Sources linked were accurate when read on 9 September 2026.