UK SPV Incorporation Index
New UK landlord limited companies rose 3.5x between 2016 and 2025
4,840 new UK SPV companies (SIC 68209) were incorporated in Jun 2026, down 20.1% year on year. In the 12 months to Jun 2026, 66,312 such companies were formed. Net formation, incorporations minus dissolutions, ran at 3.9% of gross new formations in Aug 2026.
Built entirely from official open data (Companies House, HM Land Registry). Updated Jun 2026.
The numbers
The headline figures, and where they come from
Everything on this page is built from two official sources and nothing else. The four figures below are the ones worth quoting, and each is restated underneath with the caveat that belongs to it.
Key facts
- New buy-to-let limited companies (SIC 68209) rose from 19,733 in 2016 to 69,039 in 2025, a 3.5x increase.
- In the 12 months to Jun 2026, 90,390 UK property companies were incorporated across the four real-estate SIC codes.
- The trend tracks the phase-in of the Section 24 mortgage-interest restriction, which taxes individual landlords on finance costs that companies still deduct in full.
- The average UK house price was £272,188 in Jun 2026 (HM Land Registry UK House Price Index).
Source: Companies House and HM Land Registry, official open data. Figures may be cited with attribution to Property Tax Partners. The most recent 2 months of incorporation data are provisional (Companies House indexing lag) and are excluded from the figures above.
Year on year
Landlord incorporations are climbing year on year
Each bar is the number of new companies incorporated that year under SIC code 68209, other letting and operating of own or leased real estate, the code most buy-to-let companies register under. Only complete calendar years are shown.
Month by month
The monthly trend
The same measure month by month, which shows both the long climb and the usual seasonal dip around the turn of each year. The dashed tail marks the most recent 2 months, which are provisional because Companies House indexes very recent incorporations with a short lag.
Net formation
Net formation: incorporations minus dissolutions
Gross incorporations count every new company; net formation subtracts the ones dissolved in the same month, which is the more honest read of how many SPVs are actually being added to the register.
By SIC code
By type of property company
The four real-estate SIC codes capture different kinds of property business. The figures below are for Jun 2026.
| SIC code | What it covers | New companies |
|---|---|---|
| 68209 | Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate | 4,840 |
| 68100 | Buying and selling of own real estate | 3,291 |
| 68320 | Management of real estate on a fee or contract basis | 1,373 |
| 68201 | Renting and operating of Housing Association real estate | 266 |
| All (deduplicated) | Unique companies across the four codes | 6,614 |
The backdrop
The house-price backdrop
Incorporation is partly a response to rising values: a bigger portfolio means a bigger capital gains and stamp duty exposure, which changes the maths on holding property personally versus through a company. Average prices by nation, from the UK House Price Index:
| Nation / region | Average price | Annual change |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | £272,188 | 2% |
| England | £293,262 | 1.8% |
| London | £553,870 | -2.5% |
| Wales | £213,162 | 1.8% |
| Scotland | £195,355 | 2.3% |
| Northern Ireland | £202,487 | 9.2% |
By region
Where SPVs are being formed
Registered office address is not always where the property sits, but it is the only regional signal Companies House gives us, and at this volume the pattern is still informative.
| Region | Formations, last 12 months | Share | Live companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 30,397 | 35.3% | 224,647 |
| North West | 9,706 | 11.3% | 69,870 |
| South East | 7,298 | 8.5% | 65,906 |
| West Midlands | 7,288 | 8.5% | 50,950 |
| East of England | 5,547 | 6.4% | 46,976 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 5,655 | 6.6% | 41,774 |
| South West | 4,167 | 4.8% | 40,428 |
| East Midlands | 4,327 | 5.0% | 33,624 |
| Scotland | 4,414 | 5.1% | 31,335 |
| Wales | 2,535 | 2.9% | 19,472 |
| North East | 2,238 | 2.6% | 16,576 |
| Northern Ireland | 995 | 1.2% | 9,326 |
| Other / unknown | 1,542 | 1.8% | 14,761 |
Age profile
How old are the SPVs on the register
A histogram of the year each still-live SPV was incorporated, which shows how much of the current stock is recent formation versus companies that have been on the register for years.
| Year of incorporation | Live companies |
|---|---|
| 1856 | 1 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1866 | 2 |
| 1868 | 1 |
| 1870 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1875 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1881 | 2 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 7 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 6 |
| 1890 | 8 |
| 1891 | 5 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 5 |
| 1894 | 8 |
| 1895 | 9 |
| 1896 | 12 |
| 1897 | 12 |
| 1898 | 13 |
| 1899 | 17 |
| 1900 | 15 |
| 1901 | 6 |
| 1902 | 8 |
| 1903 | 9 |
| 1904 | 11 |
| 1905 | 14 |
| 1906 | 8 |
| 1907 | 7 |
| 1908 | 24 |
| 1909 | 16 |
| 1910 | 19 |
| 1911 | 13 |
| 1912 | 18 |
| 1913 | 26 |
| 1914 | 23 |
| 1915 | 14 |
| 1916 | 2 |
| 1917 | 6 |
| 1918 | 10 |
| 1919 | 32 |
| 1920 | 41 |
| 1921 | 24 |
| 1922 | 32 |
| 1923 | 34 |
| 1924 | 44 |
| 1925 | 48 |
| 1926 | 44 |
| 1927 | 52 |
| 1928 | 50 |
| 1929 | 50 |
| 1930 | 47 |
| 1931 | 41 |
| 1932 | 43 |
| 1933 | 77 |
| 1934 | 81 |
| 1935 | 96 |
| 1936 | 107 |
| 1937 | 113 |
| 1938 | 85 |
| 1939 | 84 |
| 1940 | 62 |
| 1941 | 48 |
| 1942 | 55 |
| 1943 | 61 |
| 1944 | 77 |
| 1945 | 79 |
| 1946 | 229 |
| 1947 | 207 |
| 1948 | 143 |
| 1949 | 141 |
| 1950 | 151 |
| 1951 | 136 |
| 1952 | 116 |
| 1953 | 161 |
| 1954 | 233 |
| 1955 | 228 |
| 1956 | 247 |
| 1957 | 281 |
| 1958 | 354 |
| 1959 | 470 |
| 1960 | 504 |
| 1961 | 482 |
| 1962 | 528 |
| 1963 | 673 |
| 1964 | 657 |
| 1965 | 401 |
| 1966 | 219 |
| 1967 | 227 |
| 1968 | 180 |
| 1969 | 239 |
| 1970 | 340 |
| 1971 | 407 |
| 1972 | 592 |
| 1973 | 617 |
| 1974 | 358 |
| 1975 | 414 |
| 1976 | 525 |
| 1977 | 554 |
| 1978 | 638 |
| 1979 | 538 |
| 1980 | 560 |
| 1981 | 729 |
| 1982 | 817 |
| 1983 | 863 |
| 1984 | 976 |
| 1985 | 1,054 |
| 1986 | 1,318 |
| 1987 | 1,495 |
| 1988 | 1,460 |
| 1989 | 1,290 |
| 1990 | 1,141 |
| 1991 | 1,165 |
| 1992 | 1,181 |
| 1993 | 1,470 |
| 1994 | 1,654 |
| 1995 | 1,974 |
| 1996 | 2,434 |
| 1997 | 2,673 |
| 1998 | 3,077 |
| 1999 | 3,696 |
| 2000 | 3,751 |
| 2001 | 4,109 |
| 2002 | 5,410 |
| 2003 | 6,300 |
| 2004 | 5,655 |
| 2005 | 5,687 |
| 2006 | 6,336 |
| 2007 | 5,697 |
| 2008 | 4,328 |
| 2009 | 4,692 |
| 2010 | 5,688 |
| 2011 | 6,653 |
| 2012 | 7,783 |
| 2013 | 9,966 |
| 2014 | 12,139 |
| 2015 | 15,902 |
| 2016 | 21,262 |
| 2017 | 26,353 |
| 2018 | 29,197 |
| 2019 | 34,867 |
| 2020 | 40,815 |
| 2021 | 46,313 |
| 2022 | 46,777 |
| 2023 | 51,534 |
| 2024 | 68,700 |
| 2025 | 88,028 |
| 2026 | 56,480 |
The question people ask
How many new property companies are formed each month in the UK?
In Jun 2026, the latest settled month, 4,840 new buy-to-let companies were incorporated under SIC 68209, and 6,614 property companies across all four real-estate SIC codes.
Over the last 12 settled months the run-rate has averaged about 5,526 SIC 68209 companies a month, or roughly 7,533 property companies a month across the four codes. The busiest month on record is Sep 2025, when 6,672 SIC 68209 companies were formed.
Your own figures
What the trend means for your own portfolio
The trend is real, and the answer is still individual. It turns on your tax rate, your mortgage levels, and the stamp duty and capital gains cost of transferring properties you already own. Both tools below run on your own numbers rather than on the averages above.
The incorporation cost calculator prices the move itself, and the Section 24 tab shows what the restriction costs you where you are now. The full incorporation guide takes the decision end to end.
How it is built
Methodology and sources
Incorporations. For each month we query the Companies House Advanced Search API for companies incorporated in that month under each real-estate SIC code (68100, 68201, 68209, 68320), plus the deduplicated union across all four. Counts are gross: a company that has since been dissolved still remains on the register, so the series is not affected by survivorship. The most recent 2 months are provisional and excluded from headline figures.
House prices. Average prices come from the HM Land Registry UK House Price Index, the official measure for the UK and its nations.
Updated. Incorporations to Jun 2026; house prices to Jun 2026. Data generated Sep 2026.
How to cite this. “Source: Property Tax Partners, UK SPV Incorporation Index, Jun 2026.”
Sources
- Companies House Advanced Search API (Companies House)
- UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry / ONS)
- Companies House Advanced Search API (Companies House)
- Companies House Basic Company Data (bulk) (Companies House)
- Download the incorporation data (CSV)
Free to cite with attribution to Property Tax Partners. This page is a data summary and not tax advice on any individual situation.
Free consultation
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