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New landlord rules in 2025 are changing the industry, impacting profitability, and increasing regulatory risk.
Written by
Ben Luxon
PUBLISHED ON
May 9, 2025
The UK government has announced several significant changes set to take effect over the next few years, impacting how landlords manage their finances, comply with energy efficiency standards, and navigate the rental market. Staying informed and preparing in advance is crucial to minimize financial and operational disruptions.
In this article, we take a look at some of the changes that will be occurring in the UK real estate market over the next few years.
In this ongoing series of articles, we discuss each of these topics in greater detail as well as how you as a landlord can best prepare to face the industry changes and associated challenges.
Read the series:
HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative aims to digitize tax reporting for landlords and sole traders. Key dates include:
In order to remain compliant you will be required to keep accurate, up to date digital records throughout the year using an approved software, and submit five tax submission a year instead of one. They are also introducing a new penalties system for late filings.
Landlords that fail to get prepared in time and evolve their bookkeeping habits to remain compliant could find themselves owing thousands in fines.
You can find out more information about MTD here →
Open banking continues to revolutionise financial management for landlords. Platforms like Landlord Studio leverage open banking to securely access transaction data, enabling automatic income and expense tracking, reducing manual data entry, and improving financial oversight.
Using sftware that leverages these innovations will be fundamental to meeting your MTD requirements and
Find out how open banking can help improve your property finance management →
The Energy Performance Certification (EPC) was first introduced in England and Wales in 2007. The EPC rates a property’s energy efficiency on a scale from A to G, with A being most efficient and G being least efficient.
Landlords are responsible for ensuring their properties are in line with the regulatory guidelines – currently, they stipulate that rental properties must have an EPC rating of at least an E and that they must get a new EPC every 10 years.
However, the government is proposing stricter energy efficiency standards:
These changes aim to support the UK’s net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.
Landlords will be expected to pay for either insulating their properties to retain heat or use other ‘fabric first’ features that can help to improve heating and lighting efficiency. These upgrades could easily end up costing landlords thousands, especially those with older properties. As such it’s well worth becoming familiar with what you can do to start improving this rating as soon as possible in order to spread the cost out.
Aiming for a better EPC rating will mean lower energy bills for tenants, reducing their carbon footprint, and will actually make your property more attractive to potential buyers or tenants.
The Renters’ Rights Bill, introduced in September 2024, aims to reform the private rented sector:
The bill is expected to become effective in late 2025 and is one of the the most major reforms to the buy-to-let industry in decades.
Read more The Renters' Rights Bill: What Landlords Need to Know
Effective from 31 October 2024, the SDLT surcharge for second homes and buy-to-let properties increased from 3% to 5%.
Additionally, from 1 April 2025, new SDLT rates for additional properties were introduced:
These changes increase acquisition costs for investors, potentially impacting investment strategies and rental market dynamics.
Read more Stamp Duty for Buy-to-Let Properties (+ Free Calculator)
In response to tax changes, more landlords are considering operating through limited companies to benefit from corporate tax rates and potential tax reliefs.
By doing so they are able to take advantage of corporate tax rates as supposed to being charged standard income tax rates. Additionally, recent changes like the section 24 tax changes don’t apply to Ltd companies meaning landlords that hold their properties in an Ltd company as supposed to operating as sole traders are able to receive greater buy-to-let tax relief. And any changes made to the capital gains tax also may not affect incorporated businesses in the same way as sole traders.
However, incorporation has implications for mortgage availability, administrative responsibilities, and potential tax liabilities upon transferring properties. Professional advice is recommended before making this transition.
The rental market is constantly changing, whether we like it or not. Landlords need to be moving to digital solutions for the financial and accounting needs as well as planning their finances today to make the most of potential tax breaks and avoid potentially large expenses relating to upgrading their properties energy efficiencies.
Over the next few months, we will be putting together more detailed content and advice on how to deal with and manage these changes so sign up to our newsletter here to get notified.
Read the next article in the series:
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