Landlord yields are edging up: What the latest rental figures mean for your portfolio

Rightmove's Rental Trends Tracker for Q2 2026, published in July, contains a detail that has received less attention than the headline rent figures but matters more for long-term portfolio assessment. Average gross landlord yields increased across every region tracked between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, with rises ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 percentage points. The direction is consistent across markets that are otherwise behaving quite differently from one another, and it reflects the combination of rising rents and, in many areas, relative stability in property values.

What the yield data shows

London recorded a gross yield of 6.0%, which represents a 0.3 percentage point annual increase, the joint largest uplift in the index despite London generating the lowest absolute yield of any region tracked. 

These are gross figures, calculated from advertised asking rents against advertised sale prices, and they do not account for mortgage costs, management fees, maintenance, void periods, or tax. They serve as a directional indicator of portfolio income performance relative to asset values rather than a net return figure. What the trend confirms is that rental income growth has been outpacing any property price growth in most markets over the past twelve months, moving the income yield upward rather than being diluted by rising values.

The rent picture behind the yield movement

London also set a new record average rent of £2,791 per calendar month, its largest quarterly increase since 2023 at 2.0%, with annual growth of 2.9%.

The supply picture

One of the more significant data points in the Q2 report is the first drop in available rental supply below the previous year's level since 2022. Total available rental homes nationally are now 1% below the same point in 2025. The decline is attributed primarily to a drop in newly listed rental properties rather than an acceleration in the speed of lettings, which suggests landlord exits or decisions not to re-let are beginning to reduce the pool of available stock.

Competition between tenants remains considerably below its peak. The average rental home received 10 enquiries in Q2 2026, compared to 11 a year ago and 22 at the height of market competition in 2022. The pre-pandemic average was 5 enquiries per property, so the market is still running at double historical norms, but the intensity has eased substantially from its peak.

The buy-to-let mortgage rate context

Rightmove's daily buy-to-let mortgage tracker placed the average two-year fixed buy-to-let rate with no fee at 5.55% in Q2 2026, down from 5.67% the previous month but up from 5.20% a year earlier. For landlords approaching remortgage or considering new purchases, the directional easing in BTL rates over recent months provides a modestly improving backdrop against which yield calculations can be made, though rates remain meaningfully higher than in 2021 and 2022.

For an existing landlord reviewing portfolio performance, the combination of rising rents, improving gross yields, and supply beginning to tighten again provides a more constructive picture than the previous two years of cost pressure suggested. The regional divergence in both rent growth and yield levels means the portfolio-level picture varies considerably depending on where properties are held.

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