Selling a Tenanted Portfolio After the Renters’ Rights Act

The ground moved for residential landlords on 1 May 2026. Assured shorthold tenancies converted to periodic assured tenancies with no fixed end date, Section 21 was abolished, and the grounds for possession were rebuilt around specific, evidenced circumstances. Rent increases are now limited to once a year on two months’ notice. The private rented sector database begins its regional rollout later this year, with an ombudsman to follow.

We are not here to argue the politics of it. We are here because a good number of landlords have looked at the new regime, looked at their own age and appetite, and decided that this is the point at which they sell. If that is you, the mechanics of selling a tenanted portfolio have changed rather more than most people expect.

Vacant possession is no longer a plan, it is a hope

Under the old regime, a portfolio could be marketed on the quiet understanding that a buyer would serve notice, unwind the tenancies over eighteen months and break the properties up at vacant possession values. That arithmetic has gone. Possession now depends on establishing a ground, and the timetable belongs to the tribunal rather than to the seller.

The practical consequence is that tenanted stock is being valued as an income asset rather than as a discounted vacant one. Buyers who were paying for the break-up story have stepped back. Buyers who want the income, and who are content to hold are fewer in numbers due to higher borrowing costs, but still very much at the table. We are firmly in the second camp.

Three routes out, and how they differ

• Sell with tenants in situ, in one lot. Fastest, cleanest, and the route we prefer. One contract, one completion, no void periods, no management gap while a sale drags on.
• Sell unit by unit as properties fall vacant. This still works, but it now takes years rather than months, and it exposes the seller to the running costs, compliance obligations and empty property risk of a shrinking portfolio.
• Sell the company. Where the properties sit in a limited company, a share purchase is frequently the better answer for both sides.

Why a share purchase is often worth a conversation

Most portfolios assembled in the last decade sit inside a limited company. On a share purchase the buyer acquires the company rather than the properties, and stamp duty on shares is charged at half a per cent rather than the higher rates for additional dwellings, which now carry a five per cent surcharge across every band. That is a meaningful saving on a portfolio of any size, and it is a saving that can be shared.

It is not free money. The buyer inherits the company’s original base cost, so a latent gain sits inside the structure and is reflected in the price. The buyer also inherits the company’s history, which means warranties, indemnities and a proper look at the accounts, the filings and any legacy liabilities. That is work, and it needs the right advisers on both sides.

We have done it. In the summer of 2024 we acquired Loughborough Properties Ltd by way of a 100 per cent share purchase, taking on twenty-seven property assets including two unbroken freeholds on Coldharbour Lane in SW9. It was an intricate transaction and it needed patience from everybody involved. It also completed within the time scales agreed at the outset by both parties.

One further point worth raising with your accountant: where six or more dwellings are acquired in a single transaction, the purchase may be treated as non-residential for stamp duty purposes. Portfolio sellers are sometimes surprised at how much difference the shape of a deal makes to what a buyer can afford to pay.

What we need in order to give you a number

We are cash funded and we can value quickly, but we can only move at the speed of the information we are given. For a tenanted portfolio, the useful pack is:

• A schedule of properties with tenures, titles and rents passing
• Tenancy types and start dates, and confirmation that the required information has been served on tenants
• Deposit protection details and any arrears
• EPCs, gas and electrical certificates, and any licences held
• Any outstanding housing act notices, improvement notices or disrepair claims
• For a company sale, three years of accounts and the register of charges

Do not be put off by gaps in that list. We have bought portfolios where the paperwork was in poor order and where notices were outstanding, and we have taken those issues on rather than repricing at the last minute. What we ask is that we are told about them early.

An honest word on timing

A great deal of stock has come to the market this year and the buyers with genuine funding are being selective. Lots that are well presented, properly evidenced and realistically priced are trading. Lots that are marketed on a break-up story the legislation no longer supports are sitting.

If you are weighing up whether to sell, we would rather have a straight conversation about what your portfolio is actually worth to a long-term holder than have you discover it over nine months of falling offers.

We acquire residential and mixed use portfolios up to £20M across London, the South East, and nationwide for specialist investments. If you have a portfolio to sell, or you act for somebody who does, our team would welcome your call.