The English Private Landlord Survey 2024 is a useful snapshot of England’s private rented sector, but its coverage matters. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government report draws on more than 9,000 landlords registered with a government-backed tenancy-deposit scheme. Because the department could not create a reliable weighting method for agents, the reported findings are about direct landlords who registered deposits themselves. They may not describe landlords who use an agent to register deposits, or every tenancy in England.
The survey found that 45% of landlords owned one rental property, accounting for 21% of tenancies. Another 38% owned two to four properties, while 17% had portfolios of five or more. Those larger landlords represented 49% of tenancies. The distinction is important: the number of landlords and the number of homes they let are not distributed in the same way.
Borrowing was common but not universal. The report says 41% had no borrowing on any of their properties; 30% had borrowing on one property and a further 30% on more than one. Among landlords with borrowing, fixed-rate interest was most commonly reported. These figures describe respondents’ positions at the time of the survey, not today’s mortgage market or the terms available to new borrowers.
The report also records management and property conditions. Around a quarter of landlords said they had identified damp or mould in at least one property during the previous year. On the most recent letting, 58% said they increased rent, with a median increase of 11%; for the most recent renewal or extension, 52% reported an increase, with a median of 8%. These are survey responses about landlords’ most recent cases, not a forecast or a recommended rent-setting formula.
Future plans were mixed. In the 2024 survey, 31% said they planned to reduce their portfolios during the next two years, including 16% planning to sell all their properties; 7% expected to increase their portfolio. These were intentions captured in 2024. They do not confirm that sales or purchases later happened, and should not be read as a current prediction.
The survey was published on 5 December 2024 as Official Statistics. It offers evidence about a diverse sector, not a single “typical landlord”. Portfolio size, debt, local markets and management arrangements vary. Readers should consult the original report and technical notes before applying any figure to a particular property or business decision. This article preserves its original archive publication date while clearly dating the survey evidence.