Incorporation is becoming a more common strategy among landlords responding to regulatory and tax pressures, research from Pegasus Insight found.
The Landlord Trends Report for Q3 2025 showed that 22% of landlords now hold at least one rental property in a limited company, reflecting a continued shift toward corporate structures.
The report also found that around one in three portfolio landlords operate mixed-status portfolios.
Among those with a company structure, approximately 70% of their total holdings sit within the limited company.
While the average size of mixed portfolios has remained steady at around 15 properties since 2020, the number of properties held within companies has risen from 6.3 in Q1 2020 to 10.5 in Q3 2025, a trend driven largely by new acquisitions being made through corporate vehicles rather than by transferring older stock.
Pegasus Insight linked this structural change to the wider challenges landlords now face, including increasing running costs, tighter tax rules and evolving compliance obligations.
Mark Long, founder and director of Pegasus Insight, said: “Landlords are operating in a very different environment from that of a decade ago.
“With tax rules continuing to tighten and compliance demands rising, many now see incorporation as the most robust long-term way to run a lettings business.
“But incorporation is not a simple win. It carries costs, introduces additional administrative responsibilities, and, crucially, needs to be considered carefully with a qualified tax adviser.
“Mortgage brokers cannot and should not provide tax advice, and landlords need specialist guidance before making structural changes to their business.”
“He added: “The Chancellor’s decision in the recent Budget to introduce new higher ‘property’ tax bands of 22%, 42% and 47% for landlords who hold property in their own names from April 2027 is only likely to accelerate the move towards company structures.
“But it also risks penalising the very people who have made up the backbone of the PRS for around 30 years: smaller, long-standing landlords who have quietly provided good-quality homes without the resources or scale to absorb repeated policy shocks.
“Incorporation may well be the right answer for some, but government should be mindful that continually increasing the burden on individual landlords risks pushing more of them out of the sector entirely, at a time when the country can least afford to lose rental supply.”
