One in 5 (20%) buy-to-let companies arrange in the UK to this point this yr are owned by worldwide landlords (non-UK nationwide shareholders). This determine has risen in 9 of the final 10 years, rising from 13% in 2016.
This is in line with evaluation of Companies House information by Hamptons, which reveals that the variety of buy-to-let companies arrange throughout the UK in 2025 is operating 8% forward of final yr’s document ranges.
At present charges, round 67,000 new companies shall be arrange by the tip of 2025, with round 13,500 owned, a minimum of in half, by non-UK nationals.
International possession of recent buy-to-let companies has usually adopted wider post-Brexit migration traits. While the general share of non-UK nationwide shareholders has risen, there was a pivot away from EU nationals. In 2016, 65% of non-UK shareholders got here from the EU, however this determine has fallen to 49% in 2025.
There has additionally been a basic fall in shareholders from the Anglosphere, or English-speaking, international locations. In 2016, Irish, Americans, South Africans and Australians all featured in the highest 10. By 2025, solely Irish nationals remained, rating fourth.
Instead, possession has moved in direction of South Asia. Indians have made up the most important group of non-UK shareholders yearly since 2023. In 2022, they have been the second largest nationality amongst non-UK nationwide purchasers, behind Hong Kong nationals.
Nationals from Africa first made it into the highest 10 listing of non-UK shareholders in 2020. However, since 2023, Nigerians have ranked because the second-largest group of non-UK nationwide shareholders in newly shaped buy-to-let companies. In H1 2025, they shaped 647 new buy-to-let companies.
Despite the shift away from EU nationals in basic, Eastern European nationalities have bucked the development. Both Polish and Romanian nationals now make up a bigger share of recent buy-to-let shareholders than they did in 2016, organising 473 and 208 companies in H1 2025 respectively.
Regions exterior the capital have typically seen the most important growth in international possession. Between 2016 and 2025, the share of recent non-UK nationwide landlords greater than doubled in the East Midlands, West Midlands and Scotland.
Rental worth traits
Rents throughout the UK have fallen for the primary time in 5 years. The common hire on a newly let property fell 0.2% year-on-year in July, marking the primary annual decline since August 2020, throughout the peak of the Covid pandemic. Despite this, the common hire of £1,373 pcm stays £350 or 34% greater than in August 2020.
These hire falls are usually not but widespread. Rents are nonetheless rising in seven out of 11 areas, with the East Midlands (3.4%), West Midlands (2.7%) and South West (2.6%) main the way in which.
Greater London continues to document the sharpest drops, with rents falling 3% year-on-year in July – its seventh consecutive month-to-month decline and the most important annual drop since May 2021.
Meanwhile, rents on renewed tenancies continued to rise, up 4.5% year-on-year in July. The tempo of rental growth for renewed contracts has accelerated for the fourth consecutive month, with each area recording will increase.
Commenting on the newest information, Hamptons head of analysis Aneisha Beveridge mentioned: “Despite the challenges going through landlords, non-UK nationals are more and more embracing UK buy-to-let. The London market has lengthy been a world one, well-known throughout East Asia, the US, and the EU.
“However, demand from non-UK nationals has steadily been shifting into decrease worth markets exterior the capital, the place the majority of growth in each home costs and rents has been seen in current years.”
Beveridge added: “While overseas-based traders are a part of the image, nearly all of purchases by non-UK nationals mirror home demand. Up till 2021, this demand was probably to come back from EU nationals primarily based in the UK, however since then, it has shifted to mirror adjustments in broader migration patterns. Indian and Nigerian nationals are more and more seemingly to purchase UK buy-to-let property in a restricted firm construction.”
