This page is a reference set, not an argument. It collects the current UK landlord and buy-to-let company statistics in one place, each figure carrying the period it covers and the source it came from, so that it can be quoted directly. Every number below is derived from the Companies House register via the UK SPV Incorporation Index, which is published in full on the UK SPV Incorporation Index hub. What the numbers mean, and the charts behind them, live there rather than here.
Two conventions apply throughout. Incorporation counts are gross, so a company formed in 2019 and dissolved in 2024 still counts in 2019. The most recent two months of the series are provisional because Companies House indexes new incorporations with a short lag, so the last settled month in this release is June 2026, and July and August 2026 are excluded from every total below. Both conventions are set out in the UK SPV Incorporation Index methodology.
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Key statistics
- 69,039 companies were incorporated under SIC 68209, the standard buy-to-let letting code, in calendar year 2025, the highest annual total in the series. Source: Companies House register via the UK SPV Incorporation Index.
- 4,840 companies were incorporated under SIC 68209 in June 2026, the latest settled month, 20.1% below June 2025.
- 66,312 companies were incorporated under SIC 68209 in the twelve months to June 2026, and 90,390 across the four-code union over the same twelve months.
- Net formation across the four codes was plus 3,475 in June 2026: 6,614 incorporations less 3,139 dissolutions.
- 665,645 companies carrying at least one of the four real-estate SIC codes were on the live register at the Companies House bulk snapshot dated 1 September 2026.
- London accounted for 35.3% of property company formations in the twelve months to that snapshot, the largest regional share.
Annual and monthly formations
Calendar 2025 is the largest year in the series: 69,039 incorporations under SIC 68209 and 95,140 across the deduplicated four-code union. The previous high was 64,583 (68209) in 2024. The busiest single month on record is September 2025, at 6,672 under 68209 and 9,035 on the union. The monthly average across 2025 was 5,753 under 68209.
The first half of 2026 sits below the equivalent half of 2025. January to June 2026 recorded 32,441 incorporations under SIC 68209, against 35,168 in January to June 2025, a fall of 7.8%. On the union the comparison is 44,076 against 48,826, a fall of 9.7%. The monthly average for the first half of 2026 was 5,407 under 68209. In the single month of June 2026 the count was 4,840, 20.1% below June 2025.
| Calendar year | SIC 68209 (headline) | Four-code union |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 19,733 | 33,040 |
| 2017 | 27,014 | 43,422 |
| 2018 | 29,736 | 46,465 |
| 2019 | 36,719 | 54,638 |
| 2020 | 45,802 | 66,575 |
| 2021 | 50,689 | 70,926 |
| 2022 | 51,938 | 72,279 |
| 2023 | 52,950 | 74,639 |
| 2024 | 64,583 | 89,857 |
| 2025 | 69,039 | 95,140 |
| 2026, January to June | 32,441 | 44,076 |
All rows: Companies House register via the UK SPV Incorporation Index, incorporation counts on a gross basis. The 2026 row is a half year and is not comparable with the full years above it. The four per-code series do not sum to the union, because the union is a single deduplicated query and a company may carry more than one of the four codes; the UK SPV Incorporation Index methodology explains the dedup rule.
Dissolutions and net formation
Dissolutions are counted by dissolution date across the same four codes. In calendar 2025 there were 40,785, against 34,664 in 2024 and 31,996 in 2023. In the first six months of 2026 there were 22,836, against 17,999 in the first six months of 2025. In June 2026 alone there were 3,139.
Net formation is the union incorporation count less the union dissolution count in the same month. For June 2026 that is plus 3,475. On a full calendar year basis it was plus 54,355 in 2025 and plus 55,193 in 2024. For January to June 2026 it was plus 21,240, against plus 30,827 for January to June 2025. What that balance says about the claim that landlords are quitting the market is worked through in are landlords really leaving.
| Period | Union incorporations | Dissolutions | Net formation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 74,639 | 31,996 | +42,643 |
| 2024 | 89,857 | 34,664 | +55,193 |
| 2025 | 95,140 | 40,785 | +54,355 |
| 2025, January to June | 48,826 | 17,999 | +30,827 |
| 2026, January to June | 44,076 | 22,836 | +21,240 |
| June 2026 (latest settled month) | 6,614 | 3,139 | +3,475 |
Source for all rows: Companies House register via the UK SPV Incorporation Index. A dissolution recorded in a given month may relate to a company incorporated in any earlier year, so these rows measure the change in the live population, not cohort survival.
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Live stock and age profile
At the Companies House bulk snapshot dated 1 September 2026, 665,645 companies on the live register carried at least one of the four real-estate SIC codes. This is a live-register measure: companies formed and since dissolved are absent from it, which is why it cannot be reconciled directly against the gross incorporation counts above. The composition of that stock, including its regional split and how our definition compares with the narrower buy-to-let counts published elsewhere, is set out in how many buy-to-let limited companies there are in the UK.
The stock is young. 76.7% of those 665,645 companies were incorporated in 2016 or later, and 53.8% in 2021 or later. Companies incorporated before 2016 make up 23.3%. The single largest incorporation year represented in the live stock is 2025, at 88,028 companies, or 13.2% of the total. The full banded profile, back to the handful of survivors incorporated in the nineteenth century, is in how old UK property companies are.
| Incorporation year of live companies | Companies | Share of live stock |
|---|---|---|
| Before 2016 | 155,319 | 23.3% |
| 2016 to 2020 | 152,494 | 22.9% |
| 2021 to 2025 | 301,352 | 45.3% |
| 2026, to the snapshot date | 56,480 | 8.5% |
Source: Companies House Basic Company Data bulk snapshot dated 1 September 2026, via the UK SPV Incorporation Index. Because the file holds live companies only, earlier years are understated relative to the number of companies actually formed in them.
Regional distribution
The regional split comes from the same 1 September 2026 bulk snapshot, mapped from registered-office postcode area to the twelve ITL1 regions plus an "other or unknown" bucket. London took 35.3% of formations in the twelve months to the snapshot, followed by the North West at 11.3%, the South East at 8.5% and the West Midlands at 8.5%. On the live stock rather than the last twelve months, London holds 224,647 of the 665,645 companies. Which regions have gained and lost share over the last three years is covered in where UK property companies are being formed.
| Region | Share of last 12 months' formations | Live companies |
|---|---|---|
| London | 35.3% | 224,647 |
| North West | 11.3% | 69,870 |
| South East | 8.5% | 65,906 |
| West Midlands | 8.5% | 50,950 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 6.6% | 41,774 |
| East of England | 6.4% | 46,976 |
| Scotland | 5.1% | 31,335 |
| East Midlands | 5.0% | 33,624 |
| South West | 4.8% | 40,428 |
| Wales | 2.9% | 19,472 |
| North East | 2.6% | 16,576 |
| Other or unknown | 1.8% | 14,761 |
| Northern Ireland | 1.2% | 9,326 |
Source: Companies House register via the UK SPV Incorporation Index. Postcode areas straddle regional boundaries, so a small share of companies is attributed to a neighbouring region; the UK SPV Incorporation Index methodology states that these figures should be read as shares rather than exact regional counts, and that they are not an alternative national total.
Growth since 2016
Annual incorporations under SIC 68209 went from 19,733 in 2016 to 69,039 in 2025, an increase of 249.9%, or about 3.5 times. On the four-code union the same span runs from 33,040 in 2016 to 95,140 in 2025, an increase of 188.0%. Both endpoints are complete calendar years. The full monthly series behind them starts in September 2015 and is charted on the Index hub.
For readers arriving from a search for background rather than figures: what a property company is, and what forming one involves, is covered on our SPV company hub, with the mechanics in the SPV structure and tax guide, the fee schedule in SPV company formation cost, and the incorporation question itself in should I incorporate my buy-to-let portfolio.
How to cite these statistics
The Companies House data underneath the Index is Crown copyright, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The Index itself is free to cite and reproduce with attribution. Use the following line:
Source: Property Tax Partners, UK SPV Incorporation Index, September 2026. https://www.propertytaxpartners.co.uk/research/landlord-tax-index
The full underlying series, monthly from September 2015, is downloadable as a CSV from the Index data page, and the definitions, dedup rule, provisional window and known limits are set out in the UK SPV Incorporation Index methodology. There is no named spokesperson; the work is attributable as analysis by Property Tax Partners of Companies House data. The Index is refreshed monthly, so quote the period alongside any figure taken from this page.