If you own a tenanted portfolio and you’re thinking about selling, the ground shifted under you on 1 May 2026. The Renters’ Rights Act didn’t just abolish Section 21 — it quietly rewrote the economics of every tenanted portfolio transaction in England. Most of the “we buy portfolios” websites you’ll find on Google were written before the Act came into force, and the advice on many of them is now out of date.

Here’s what actually changed, and what it means depending on which exit route you take.

The three changes that matter to sellers

Section 21 is gone. You can no longer serve a no-fault notice to deliver vacant possession on your own timetable. If a buyer wants your properties empty, possession now has to be obtained through a specific statutory ground — and that has consequences for pricing, timelines and which buyers will even look at your stock.

Ground 1A exists, but it bites. The new selling ground lets a landlord seek possession in order to sell, but it comes with conditions. You cannot use it in the first 12 months of a tenancy, notice periods are longer than the old Section 21 regime, and — critically — if you gain possession under Ground 1A and the sale falls through, you’re restricted from re-letting the property for 12 months. Get that wrong and you’re facing a fine and a property you can neither sell nor rent. A portfolio-wide vacant possession strategy that relied on Section 21 flexibility now carries real execution risk.

All tenancies are now periodic. Fixed terms have gone. For a buyer, that means every tenancy in your rent roll can be ended by the tenant on two months’ notice. Buyers underwriting your income stream now price in more churn risk — which is another reason clean tenancy data and realistic rent evidence matter more than they used to.

What this does to each exit route

Selling with tenants in situ has become relatively more attractive, not less. Since vacant possession is slower and riskier to deliver, a portfolio with good tenants, clean records and market-level rents is now the path of least resistance — for the right buyer. The buyers best placed to take on tenanted stock at scale are other portfolio investors, usually purchasing through their own limited companies — often financing the acquisition as a portfolio purchase — and frequently preferring to buy the company rather than the properties.

Selling for vacant possession is now a project plan, not a notice-serving exercise. If your strategy is to refurbish and sell piecemeal on the open market, you need to sequence Ground 1A notices carefully, respect the 12-month tenancy minimum, and build in contingency for hearings. It still works — it just needs to be planned like a development programme, with finance that tolerates the timeline.

Selling to a cash portfolio buyer hasn’t changed mechanically, but the discount you’ll be asked to accept has, if anything, widened. Cash buyers price for certainty and speed, and post-Act possession risk is one more thing they’ll discount for. If your portfolio is performing and company-held, accepting a 20–25% haircut for speed you may not actually need is usually the most expensive decision available.

Selling the company (SPV share sale) is the route the Act barely touches — and the one almost nobody writes about. If your portfolio is held in a limited company, the buyer can acquire the shares rather than the properties. (For a full breakdown of the exit routes available to portfolio landlords, see our guide to selling a property portfolio.) Tenancies continue undisturbed, no possession action is needed, no Ground 1A risk arises, and the tenants may never notice the transaction happened. For company-held portfolios, the Act has made the share sale route even more clearly the premium exit.

What buyers now ask for (and sellers should prepare)

Whichever route you choose, post-Act due diligence has hardened. Expect any serious buyer to want:

• A complete tenancy schedule with start dates, rent, deposit protection evidence and compliance certificates per property
• Rent payment histories — arrears are now harder to resolve, so they’re priced more aggressively
• Evidence of rents relative to market — under-rented stock is an opportunity for a buyer but a discount against you if you can’t evidence achievable uplift
• Clean title and, for company sales, clean company records — filings, loans, inter-company balances and director’s loan positions all get inspected

Sellers who arrive with this prepared transact faster and defend their price. Sellers who don’t hand the buyer a list of reasons to chip.

The honest summary

The Renters’ Rights Act rewards prepared sellers and punishes improvised exits. If your portfolio is held in a limited company, the strongest response to the Act is usually to sell the structure, not the bricks — and if you’re going to sell the properties themselves, the possession strategy now needs planning months before the portfolio goes to market.

At SPV Mortgages we specialise in company-held portfolio transactions — purchases, sales and the finance that sits behind them. If you’re weighing up an exit, our Exit-Ready Portfolio Audit gives you a clear-eyed view of what your portfolio would achieve through each route, and what to fix before you go to market.

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Prefer to read first? How to sell a property portfolio covers all five exit routes.

The guidance contained within this article is subject to the UK regulatory regime and is primarily targeted at customers in the UK. SPV Mortgages does not provide tax or legal advice; we work alongside your tax adviser and solicitor. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.