But they are more optimistic than this time last year
In the wake of the Renters’ Rights Act, more than half of agents (51%) are more cautious when recommending applicants than they were last year.
Meanwhile, 1 in 4 (26%) landlords are more likely to reject applicants previously accepted and nearly a third (31%) would rather leave a property vacant while waiting for a lower-risk applicant, according to early findings from Goodlord’s 9th State of the Industry Report, which surveyed 3,000 agents, landlords and tenants.
The greater scrutiny over tenant choices follows the elimination of Section 21, the inability to pay rent in advance, and the ban on over-bidding.
Goodlord CEO William Reeve says: “As these initial findings show, unintended consequences of the Act are starting to make themselves known. The deep irony here is that certain tenants will now be far more likely to struggle to secure tenancies; creating a gulf between those settled in their properties and those seeking a new place to call home. Students, foreign nationals and those with non-traditional incomes are likely to fare the worst, becoming ‘outsiders’ in an increasingly cautious market,” he says.
Revealing landlord and tenant sentiment
The 2026 report, which will be launched in full next Thursday, also debuts The Sentiment Index, a tracker compiling four years’ worth of data which examines how agents, landlords and tenants are feeling about the market.
It shows that among agents, pessimism has dropped from nearly half of all agents (48%) down to 40% over the last year. Larger agencies of 11 or more staff are more optimistic (42%), compared with only 28% among smaller businesses of five or fewer staff.
Meanwhile, landlord pessimism has reduced compared to last year, but landlords are still downbeat, with 69% pessimistic, compared to 78% in 2025. The trend is most prevalent among larger landlords, with 81% of landlords with 6 or more properties pessimistic, compared to 63% of those with only one.
Tenants, meanwhile, are feeling significantly more optimistic, up from 20% to 37%. This is most evident amongst younger tenants, with half (50%) of those aged 25-34 describing themselves as optimistic about the lettings market, alongside almost half (48%) of 18-24-year-olds. Older tenants report higher levels of pessimism.
Reeves continues: “This time last year, the industry was bracing itself for a seismic shift. There was so much uncertainty and a huge amount of preparation to be done. Now that the initial dust is settled, you can almost hear the market exhaling. We finally know where we stand and there is significantly less pessimism – if not quite hope – as a result.
“However, a gulf in sentiment is starting to emerge. Tenants and landlords are at opposite ends of the sentiment spectrum, which doesn’t bode well when it comes to persuading landlords to stay in the market.”
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