Private landlords in the U.K. are increasingly selling properties or planning to exit the market amid rising financing costs and tax and regulatory burdens. The decline in supply is already leading to further increases in rent and is occurring at a time when the country is experiencing a change in government and a period of heightened economic uncertainty.
According to official data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), in July 2026, the average private rent reached £1,393 per month, up 3.7% year-over-year. In England, the figure stood at £1,451, and in London, it was £2,317 per month.
A study by the Lomond agency network paints a similar picture, showing that British renters are already spending an average of 32.7% of their annual income on housing. According to the company’s methodology, the average rent was £1,369 per month, 4.3% higher than a year earlier. The discrepancy with ONS data is due to different sample sizes and calculation methods.
At the same time, supply from landlords is shrinking. A July survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed that new listings from landlords stood at -27%. Market participants report that landlords are reducing their portfolios or exiting the sector entirely. Despite more subdued demand from tenants, the balance of expectations for further rent increases rose to +28%.
A survey of more than 2,000 landlords conducted by Property118 in the second quarter paints an even bleaker picture: 40.2% had already reduced their portfolios over the previous two years, while only 6% had expanded them. Looking ahead to the next three years, 67.7% of respondents expect to sell at least part of their real estate holdings, while 27.1% intend to exit the market entirely.
One of the main reasons remains the high cost of borrowing. The Bank of England’s base rate stands at 3.75%, significantly higher than the levels seen during the era of cheap money prior to 2022. More than a third of the landlords surveyed will need to refinance their mortgages within the next year, which for many means switching from old, cheap fixed rates to significantly more expensive terms.
An additional factor has been the most significant reform of the private rental market in many years. As of May 1, 2026, the main provisions of the Renters’ Rights Act came into effect in England: Section 21 evictions without cause have been abolished, fixed-term leases are being replaced by a system of periodic tenancies, and landlords’ responsibilities have been strengthened. Starting in late 2026, the government will begin implementing a mandatory private rental housing registry, for which registration will incur a fee. Additional quality standards and a mandatory ombudsman will be introduced in the future.
That said, it would be incorrect to attribute the mass plans to sell properties solely to the new law. Pressure on the sector has been building for years due to tax changes, restrictions on mortgage interest deductions, and rising costs for insurance, repairs, and property maintenance. The new rules have merely become yet another factor forcing owners to reevaluate the economics of buy-to-let.
The situation in the housing market is unfolding against a backdrop of serious political instability in the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer stepped down as prime minister in the summer of 2026 after losing support within the Labour Party, and in September he decided to leave Parliament as well. He was succeeded by Andy Burnham, who became the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade.
The new administration must simultaneously address the cost of living, the funding of social programs, and pressure on public finances. Yields on long-term British government bonds rose to approximately 5.26% in early September—a high not seen since 2008—which increases borrowing costs not only for the government but also, indirectly, for the entire economy. Investors are awaiting the new cabinet’s October budget and trying to understand how Burnham intends to finance his social and infrastructure initiatives.
It is still premature to speak of a full-blown economic crisis or recession in the UK. GDP grew by 0.4% in the second quarter of 2026, following 0.6% growth in the first quarter, though the pace of growth is slowing. Inflation accelerated again in July to 2.9%, unemployment reached 4.9%, and British businesses remain cautious about new investments.
It is precisely this combination of weak economic growth, high interest rates, and political uncertainty that is exacerbating problems in the rental market. The new cabinet aims to strengthen tenant protections, but as private landlords withdraw from the market, the opposite effect occurs: the fewer apartments available on the market, the greater the pressure on rent.
This presents a complex dilemma for the British government. If regulations and taxes continue to erode returns on private rentals faster than the government and institutional investors can build new housing, some of the costs of tenant protections may effectively be passed back to tenants in the form of higher rents and fewer housing options.
In the medium term, this could accelerate a structural shift in the British market: small private landlords will gradually be replaced by professional build-to-rent operators, pension funds, and investment funds capable of operating with lower returns and withstanding significantly stricter regulation.
Thus, the exit of British landlords is not an isolated real estate issue, but part of a broader picture: expensive capital, an economic slowdown, a crisis of political stability, and, at the same time, the government’s attempt to significantly tighten regulation of the housing market. For tenants, the main risk is not the mass disappearance of rental housing per se, but rather its continued rise in price and the shift in ownership from small landlords to large institutional investors.
The housing crisis in Spain continues to deepen amid a long-standing shortage of new construction, a rise in the number of households, and a record increase in population—a significant portion of which is due to migration. The structural housing shortage in the country is estimated at approximately 700,000–750,000 units, according to data from the Funcas analytical center.
The current situation should not be compared to the housing bubble of the 2000s. At that time, significantly more housing was being built in Spain, and market growth was fueled by lending. Now the problem is the opposite—supply consistently lags behind demand.
In recent years, approximately 100,000 new homes have been completed annually in Spain, while about 230,000 new households have been formed. The gap that has accumulated since 2020 has reached nearly 700,000 units.
As a result, both home purchase prices and rental rates are rising. The problem is particularly acute in Madrid, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, and popular coastal areas. At the same time, the shortage is gradually spreading from the largest cities to their suburbs and medium-sized cities. Funcas notes that rents have been rising faster than wages in recent years, and young renters spend an average of about 35% of their budget on housing and utilities.
Experts believe that some of the measures taken by the authorities can only temporarily curb prices but cannot eliminate the root cause of the crisis. Rent controls may lower housing costs for some current tenants, but at the same time reduce the number of apartments that landlords are willing to put on the market. Subsidies for buyers, given limited supply, may also lead to further price increases.
Among the long-term solutions, Funcas cites increasing the supply of land parcels, expediting the issuance of building permits, enhancing legal certainty for developers and property owners, and expanding the stock of affordable rental housing. Social rental housing in Spain accounts for only about 2–3% of the housing stock, which is significantly below the EU average.
Spain’s rapid population growth is placing additional pressure on the market. As of July 1, 2026, the country’s population stood at a record 49.80 million, an increase of 444,200 from the previous year. At the same time, Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) explicitly states that the population increase is driven by people born abroad, while the number of residents born in Spain is declining.
The number of residents in Spain born abroad reached 10.29 million by mid-year, accounting for more than one-fifth of the country’s population. The number of residents with foreign citizenship stood at 7.44 million, having increased by 87,200 in the second quarter alone.
According to the latest comprehensive breakdown from the INE, the largest foreign communities consist of citizens of Morocco—about 969,000,
Colombia—677,000, Romania—609,000, Venezuela—378,000, Italy—346,000, and the United Kingdom—266,000. There are also significant communities of people from Peru, China, Ukraine, and Latin American countries.
The influx continues in 2026. In the second quarter alone, approximately 34,000 Colombian citizens, 23,300 Venezuelans, and 21,100 Moroccans arrived in Spain. In the first quarter, Ukrainians were among the largest groups of new arrivals—about 25,700 people.
Separate statistics from Spain’s Ministry of Migration show that as of the end of June 2026, 353,000 Ukrainian citizens already held valid residence permits, mainly thanks to the temporary protection mechanism.
The growth of the foreign population cannot be considered the sole cause of the housing crisis; experts attribute it primarily to a decade of insufficient construction. However, migration significantly increases the number of households and the demand for rentals, especially in large cities and economically active coastal regions. Given the construction of approximately 100,000 units per year, the additional population growth of hundreds of thousands of people becomes a significant factor in the further rise in housing costs.
Thus, the housing crisis in Spain is driven by several factors: a chronic shortage of new construction, an increase in the number of households, a limited supply of affordable rental housing, internal migration to major cities, foreign buyers, and the tourism sector. Rapid population growth due to immigration exacerbates the existing shortage, but is not its root cause.
New York has retained the top spot among 69 cities worldwide in terms of rental costs for both one-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, according to data from the Deutsche Bank Research Institute.
In the ranking of three-bedroom apartment rents, Zurich, San Francisco, Boston, and Singapore follow New York. London ranked eighth, Paris 21st, Frankfurt 30th, Tokyo 40th, and Seoul 44th.
The authors of the study point out that a high nominal salary does not always translate to high disposable income. New York ranks among the top five cities globally in terms of net wages, yet a significant portion of residents’ income is consumed by housing costs.
The contrast with Tokyo is particularly striking: renting a three-bedroom apartment in the Japanese capital costs about four times less than in New York.
Data from Deutsche Bank show that housing costs are becoming one of the main factors driving differences in real living standards among the world’s largest financial centers.
According to Experts.new, following a period of relative calm, housing prices in Ukraine have begun to rise again, as stated in the National Bank of Ukraine’s June Financial Stability Report.
According to the NBU, housing prices have risen over the past six months. In the primary market, advertised prices increased roughly in proportion to the hryvnia’s devaluation, as real estate prices in Ukraine are traditionally quoted in U.S. dollars. In the secondary market, the increase was faster—5–10 percentage points higher than the devaluation.
An additional factor was the sharp rise in the cost of construction due to a surge in fuel prices. This intensified upward pressure on prices for new construction and limited developers’ ability to keep prices at previous levels.
At the same time, the NBU notes that housing prices remain historically low relative to household incomes. In the first quarter of 2026, the housing price-to-income ratio stood at 8.7x for the primary market and 8.6x for the secondary market.
The situation is different in the rental market. Due to winter attacks on energy infrastructure and the associated risks, the growth in rental rates has slowed. In Kyiv, the south, and the center of the country, rental costs have remained virtually unchanged since last fall. Price increases continued mainly in the western regions.
The price-to-rent ratio for secondary housing rose slightly in the first quarter to 10.4x, but still did not exceed the long-term average.
For buyers, this means that housing remains relatively affordable by historical standards, but uncertainty, security concerns, and the state of the energy infrastructure continue to limit demand. For investors, the situation is less clear-cut: rising purchase prices coupled with nearly stable rents reduce the short-term appeal of buying housing for rental purposes, especially in Kyiv and the central regions.
In the medium term, market dynamics will depend on the hryvnia exchange rate, the cost of construction, security, the state of the energy sector, and the resumption of mortgage lending.
HOUSING, NBU, PRICE, REAL ESTATE, rent
Rising housing and rent prices in Europe are increasingly limiting people’s access to adequate housing and increasing the risk of homelessness, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)’s annual report, Fundamental Rights Report: Challenges and Achievements in 2025.
According to the FRA, between 2015 and 2024, home prices in the EU rose by an average of 53%, while rents increased by nearly 17%. The agency notes that the housing crisis is becoming not only an economic issue but also a human rights issue, as the right to adequate housing is becoming increasingly inaccessible to vulnerable groups.
“Rising costs are affecting many people and families, as more and more people cannot afford housing and are at risk of becoming homeless,” said FRA Director Sirpa Rautio.
According to an estimate by the European Federation of National Organizations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA), cited by the FRA, there were nearly 1.3 million homeless people in the EU in 2025. The agency identifies young people, private-market renters, low-income families, migrants, refugees, and people already on the brink of social exclusion as particularly vulnerable.
The FRA notes that more than two-thirds of EU residents own their homes, yet among those with incomes below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, fewer than half are homeowners. This exacerbates inequality: rising housing prices increase the wealth of property owners but worsen the situation for renters and those without access to mortgages.
The report covers all 27 EU countries, as well as three candidate countries or countries potentially linked to the European integration process—Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia.
The housing crisis is becoming one of the key social challenges for Europe. Rising housing prices are already affecting not only the real estate market, but also demographics, labor mobility, social stability, and trust in public institutions.
According to data from Idealista, the cost of renting a home in Spain hit an all-time high in May 2026, averaging 15.1 euros per square meter per month.
Rents rose by 0.6% over the month and by 4% year-over-year. The previous high was recorded in early 2026, when the average rate stood at around €15 per square meter. Thus, the Spanish rental market continues to grow despite the government’s attempts to curb pressure on the housing market.
The rise in prices is linked to a persistent imbalance where demand exceeds supply, particularly in major cities, tourist regions, and areas with a high concentration of jobs. The market is also influenced by a shortage of affordable rental housing, the shift of some apartments to short-term rentals, rising demand from migrants and students, as well as caution among landlords following tighter regulations.
In April 2026, the average rent in Spain was €15 per square meter, which was 5.2% higher than in April 2025. In May, the figure rose to €15.1 per square meter, though the annual growth rate slowed to 4%.
The most expensive markets remain the major economic and tourist hubs. In Madrid, the average rent in April reached €23.3 per square meter per month, which is 8.6% higher than a year earlier. This is one of the highest levels among the country’s largest markets.
At the provincial level, rents rose across nearly all of Spain in the spring of 2026. Prices rose in 49 of 50 provinces, with the sole exception being Barcelona, where a decline of 8.5% was recorded. The largest increases were recorded in Lleida, Toledo, Guadalajara, and Segovia.
High rental rates are intensifying social and political pressure surrounding the housing market. In recent years, Spanish authorities have been discussing restrictions on short-term rentals, expanding affordable housing, regulating rental rates in high-demand areas, and offering incentives to landlords willing to rent out apartments at moderate prices.
For foreign buyers and investors, rising rents mean continued interest in Spanish real estate as an income-generating asset, but at the same time, they increase regulatory risks. In regions with a housing shortage, authorities may tighten rules for vacation rentals and impose additional restrictions on short-term rentals.
Spain remains one of the largest real estate markets in Southern Europe. Rental demand is driven by major cities, international migration, tourism, the student sector, and the remote work market. The tightest market conditions persist in Madrid, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Malaga, Valencia, and other popular cities and coastal regions.
