Propertymark figures highlight the gap between a busy market and reliable rental income
Average gaps between tenancies approached four weeks in August 2026, even as letting agents reported a sharp rise in prospective tenant registrations. The combination challenges the assumption that strong demand automatically means a rental property will produce uninterrupted income.
Propertymark’s Housing Insight Report, published on 12 October, recorded an average of 121 new prospective tenant registrations per member branch. Its full report also showed around ten registrations for each available rental property. Yet the average void period reported by members increased to almost four weeks.
Why demand and empty weeks can coexist
The figures describe different parts of the letting process. Registrations measure people expressing an interest in finding a home, while a void period measures the gap between tenancies. A busy applicant list does not establish that a particular property is ready, affordable or suitable for the people searching.
Possible reasons for a gap include repairs between occupiers, delays aligning moving dates or a mismatch between the home offered and applicants’ budgets. Those are potential explanations, not causes established by this survey. The report does not identify how much of the average void was avoidable.
For landlords, that distinction matters when judging performance. An empty period used for necessary work is different from a ready-to-let property attracting enquiries but failing to secure a tenancy. The same number of vacant days can have very different explanations.
The income lost during a void
The financial effect can be substantial even before other costs are considered. Take a hypothetical property renting for £1,200 a month. Its full annual rent would be £14,400. Using a 52-week year, four weeks without rent would remove approximately £1,108, or 7.7 per cent, from that potential income.
For comparison, an extra £25 a month would add £300 over a fully let year. This arithmetic does not establish the right asking rent for any property, but it shows why the amount advertised and the amount collected over twelve months are different measures.
These are illustrative calculations, not Propertymark’s estimates of landlord losses. Actual outcomes depend on the timing and length of vacancies, the rent achieved and expenditure while the property is empty. Mortgage payments and some other ownership costs may continue during a gap, so lost rent is not necessarily the whole financial impact.
What the findings mean for tenants
Longer voids do not necessarily mean tenants have more suitable homes to choose from. A property undergoing work may be empty without being available for immediate occupation. A home advertised at a price beyond a household’s budget does not solve that household’s housing problem either.
The combination of competition and empty weeks therefore does not prove that demand has disappeared or that landlords are deliberately withholding homes. It points to the importance of whether the available property, the applicant and the moving timetable can be matched.
A survey snapshot rather than a national rule
Propertymark says its report draws on a monthly survey of around 100 letting agents and 100 sales agents across the UK, alongside third-party statistics. The lettings findings reflect member responses, rather than an administrative count of every rented property.
These are August observations published in October, not a real-time measure of conditions today. An average approaching four weeks also does not mean every landlord experienced that gap, or that each property becomes vacant once a year. The report cannot establish that tenancy reforms caused the change.
The development is market evidence, not a new legal requirement. For landlords, the useful distinction is between strong interest in renting and rent actually received. For tenants, it is between a property being empty and a suitable home being available when they need it.
NetRent does not provide legal advice. This article represents our understanding of rental property law and is provided for general information only. Landlords should obtain independent legal or professional advice where appropriate.
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