The media portrayal of BTL is not fair or accurate – landlords

25 June 2025

Only 9% of landlords think the portrayal of the market is fair or accurate

The media portrayal of the buy-to-let market is not accurate, according to research undertaken by Landbay.

In a poll of landlords, the buy-to-let (BTL) lender found that only 9% said they agreed that the media portrayal of the market was “fair and accurate”.

This represents a huge drop from a similar poll in 2023 when 19% of landlords felt the portrayal of the market was fair and accurate.

Rob Stanton, sales and distribution director at Landbay, said:

“The media – chiefly social but also the mainstream press – is traducing buy-to-let landlords. People seem to have a view that landlords are rolling in cash making huge profits; the situation has got worse over the last year presumably encouraged by the legislative agenda. As more landlords – small business owners – leave the market in the face of counter-productive red tape, the landlord-bashers are going to get a wake-up call when they realise the housing crisis has not disappeared and – because the supply of rental properties has shrunk – rents have risen.”

When Landbay broke the numbers down further, they found little difference between predominantly HMO or MUFB landlords and those with more vanilla portfolios. But there was a significant difference between landlords borrowing via Ltd companies and those still borrowing as individuals. While 10% of those borrowing solely through Ltd company structures (or with a blend of Ltd company and individual borrowing, thought the media’s portrayal was neither fair nor accurate, only 4% of those borrowing solely as individuals shared this view.

Equally, only 4% of landlords with single properties or portfolios of two or three properties thought the media portrayal was fair and accurate, compared to 10% of those with four or more properties.

Rob Stanton said:

“Landlords with only a few properties tend to be those that have invested all their savings and inheritance into their properties in the hope of providing themselves with a retirement income. I think they genuinely care about the state of their properties and therefore find their demonisation even more unfair.”

Landbay conducted their research in May 2025, polling buy-to-let landlords with portfolios totalling approximately 3,000 properties.