By Heena Thaker, Group Head of Legal - Mortgages, OSB Group
In October 2025, the Renters’ Rights Act received Royal Assent and introduced changes to strengthen tenant protection and raise standards across the private rented sector. These changes by their nature, have a direct impact on landlords and could influence their growth strategies and borrowing behaviour.
Here’s an overview of the new legislation and how the changes could influence how brokers advise as well as highlight key considerations with their landlord clients.
How the Renters’ Rights Act could affect landlords
Good news: despite the proposed changes to legislation, 62% of the landlords asked in the latest Landlord Leaders survey from Rely, shared their optimism at operating as a landlord in future, which is up significantly from 47% in 2025.
Mortgage brokers will play a key role in helping landlords navigate the new legislation, as well as understand which lending criteria can help their future journey in the private rented sector to go smoothly.
Below are a few key highlights that brokers may want to include in conversations with their landlord clients.
The Act will be introduced in three phases:
Phase 1: From 1st May 2026
- Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions have been abolished
- Introduce Assured Periodic Tenancies in the PRS
- Possession Grounds reform to create more balance between Landlords and Tenants
- Limit rent increases to once a year
- Ban on rental bidding and rent in advance
- No discrimination against tenants with children or those on benefits
- Landlords must consider rentals to tenants with pets
- Strengthen local council enforcement - Local authorities will have more power when it comes to investigating breaches and larger penalties will be implemented to strengthen the importance of the reforms.
Phase 1: Broker Considerations
Landlord clients are likely to be increasingly interested in lender appetite, risk tolerance and exit strategies. It’s worth brokers getting as clued up as possible on criteria by speaking to their BDMs to ensure they’re able to paint an accurate picture for their clients. The new possession rules attempt to balance tenant protection with the landlords’ needs. Brokers may find that this ruling affects short-term investment strategies and sales intended for quick turn arounds. It’s important for brokers to speak to all of their landlord clients, regardless of portfolio size, to ensure they’re aware of these important changes.
The changes may result in changes to rental income growth, which could impact affordability calculations and change the number of options that brokers can access when refinancing. It’s important that brokers speak to their landlord clients at the earliest opportunity in order to help understand the potential impact on rental income as rental increases will be more restricted under the new regime.
Landlords and agents will no longer be allowed to accept offers above the advertised rent or request more than one month’s rent in advance. This will have a direct impact on the rental yield calculations for affordability assessments, so it’s important that this is considered before submitting an agreement in principle. This is a model that many landlords are already using so brokers may find that this impacts the smaller accidental landlords who may be new to the sector and therefore need more support in navigating the changes.
These reforms also mean landlords will no longer be able to discriminate against certain tenant demographics. It may fall to brokers to remind landlords and reassure lenders on the importance of aspects like insurance, arrears management, or income stability.
Phase 2: From late 2026
Phase 2 is due to be implemented in 2 key stages:
- Roll out of the PRS Database – Stage 1
- Establish the PRS Landlord Ombudsman – Stage 2
The PRS Database registration will be mandatory for all PRS landlords, and they will be required to pay an annual fee and provide key information. Stage 2 will enable a form of public access and sharing of this database.
The Ombudsman will provide a resolution service for private rented sector tenants but also support landlords with tools, guidance and training on handling complaints from tenants.
The Ombudsman scheme will be mandatory for PRS landlords and landlords will be required to fund the service through a charging model to be determined.
Phase 2: Broker Considerations
It may be useful for brokers to remind their landlord clients about the importance of Phase 2 and its impact on maintaining their registration for the database and the Ombudsman.
It will be important for brokers to stay ahead of the Phase 2 changes to ensure they can advise their landlord clients well in advance of any deadlines and by keeping in touch with specialist buy to let lenders such as Rely brokers can keep themselves ahead of the curve.
Phase 3: A new Decent Homes Standard in the PRS (timings yet to be confirmed)
- The Decent Homes Standard will introduce a minimum standard of housing quality and provide local councils with powers to take enforcement action if PRS properties fail to meet it.
- Extend Awaab’s Law to the PRS, setting clear legally enforceable timeframes within which PRS landlords must make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.
Phase 3: Broker Considerations
Brokers could see an increase in capital-raising remortgages or further advance requests to fund the improvements needed to meet these new Phase 3 standards.
The extension of Awaab’s Law to the PRS will mean that serious hazards like damp and mould will need to be investigated and fixed on much stricter timelines. This may result in increases to maintenance costs that landlords hadn’t anticipated.
Similarly to the Decent Homes Standard, brokers may also see an increase in buy to let investors who rely on refinancing to fund these projects. Rely’s latest Landlord Leaders study shared that just over 50% of professional landlords are using their savings to fund energy improvements.
Buy to let mortgage brokers may find that lenders start to introduce stricter due diligence, and that the involvement of accidental landlords in the PRS becomes less and less.
Understanding the regulations and compliance that comes with buy to let lending will become part of the advice investors will rely on brokers for and that’s where specialist lenders can really step up to the plate.
By : 
Comments
Complete the form on this page to submit your comment, and register your interest in the Landlord Leaders Community.