HTB comments on ONS Private Rent and House Price data

22 April 2026

Alex Upton, Managing Director, Specialist Mortgages & Bridging Finance, Hampshire Trust Bank, said:

“Rental growth has slowed from the peaks seen over the past two years, but the underlying pressure has not gone away. Demand continues to outstrip supply in many parts of the market, particularly for well-located and better-quality stock, and that imbalance is likely to persist while delivery of new housing remains below what is needed.

“What has changed is landlord confidence. Expansion is no longer the default response to rising demand. Investors are becoming more selective and more deliberate in how they deploy capital. The focus has shifted towards resilience, refining portfolios, strengthening income and moving towards assets that can perform more consistently under tighter regulatory and cost conditions.

“That shift is reshaping funding requirements. Landlords are not simply adding new properties, they are restructuring. This includes releasing capital selectively, consolidating borrowing and repositioning portfolios to reflect changing margins and longer-term strategy, often through more complex, transitional transactions. It requires lenders who can assess cases on their merits and structure funding around how portfolios operate in practice.

“In this environment, clarity and consistency matter. Where funding remains accessible and decisions are grounded in a clear understanding of the underlying strategy, confidence holds. Where it does not, it falls away quickly. Over time, that feeds directly into supply and availability. Without that stability, the rental market does not rebalance, it tightens.”