Nottingham is home to the busiest letting agents in Britain, research suggests.

New analysis shows the city has an average of 31.4 available rental listings per agency, more than double the average seen across 21 major British cities.

Tenancy platform Propoly analysed available rental property listings and active letting agency numbers across 21 major British cities in July 2026.

Across the 21 cities analysed, there were an estimated 71,536 available rental properties being marketed by 5,454 letting agencies, equating to an average of 13.1 available lets per agent.

Busiest agents

Nottingham recorded by far the highest level of activity, with 3,078 available rental listings being handled by 98 agencies, resulting in an average of 31.4 listings per agent.

Newcastle ranked second, with an average of 23.5 available lets per agency, based on 2,886 available rental listings and 123 active letting agents. Aberdeen ranked third with an average of 18.2 listings per agency, followed by Birmingham at 7.2 and Leeds at 16.5.

Elsewhere, Plymouth recorded an average of 15.6 available lets per agency, ahead of Bournemouth at 15.3, Leicester at 15.1 and Portsmouth at 15.1. Sheffield averaged 14.9 listings per agency, followed by Southampton at 14.3, while Liverpool at 13.8 and Bristol at 13.4 both sat broadly in line with the overall city average.

What these figures highlight is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to running a successful lettings business.

At the lower end, London and Cardiff each recorded an average of 12.2 available lets per agency. Despite having by far the largest volume of rental stock, London’s 33,473 available listings were spread across an estimated 2,744 agencies, resulting in an average of 12.2 available lets per agent.

Manchester also ranked below the overall city average, with 10 listings per agency, while Sunderland averaged 11.9 and Swansea 11.1. Glasgow and Newport recorded the lowest levels of activity, with Glasgow averaging eight available lets per agent and Newport recording just 6.8, the lowest figure of any city analysed.

No one-size-fits-all

Sim Sekhon (pictured), Group Chief Executive at Propoly, says: ”The volume of rental stock that letting agents are managing varies dramatically across the country and that creates very different operational challenges from one market to the next.

“For agencies handling a high number of available properties, efficiency becomes increasingly important. As workloads grow, having the right systems and processes in place can make a significant difference to how quickly properties are marketed, enquiries are managed and tenancies progress.

“What these figures highlight is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to running a successful lettings business. Local market conditions, levels of competition and the volume of stock all influence how agencies operate, making it more important than ever that agents have technology that helps them adapt, streamline day-to-day operations and deliver a consistently high standard of service.”