Landlords selling their buy-to-let properties now are facing squeezed profit margins as the housing market dips.

These property investors are not achieving as much as other landlords who sold up a year ago, according to figures from Hamptons.

So far this year, the average landlord in England and Wales sold their buy-to-let for £94,800 more than they initially paid for the property, having owned it for an average of 11 years.

This gain Is down 10.1% from a record £105,300 last year, and is almost identical to what landlords selling in 2016 received.

Landlord falls

Average gains on the sale of a property by a landlord fell year-on-year in every region for the first time since 2020.

Northern regions recorded the largest year-on-year falls. Smaller terraced houses and flats, which have seen weaker price growth in recent years, made up a higher share of all buy-to-let sales so far this year.

Selling up

In cash terms, London landlords who sold up still saw the largest gross capital gains.  So far this year this figure stood at £308,500.  However, this number is down 3.4% from £319,300 last year, and 15% down from a peak of £365,000 in 2016 due to slower price growth.

It is likely that the amount made by landlords selling up will fall further on the back of both lower prices being achieved and a rising proportion of sellers having bought later in the house price cycle, Hamptons says.

Landlords looking to sell today may have missed the top of the market.”

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, says: “As house prices start to slip back, there are signs that the landlords looking to sell today may have missed the top of the market.

“Rather, some investors are consoling themselves with record-breaking rental growth, which is slowly ironing out the arithmetic for landlords.”