We can’t control the result, but we can stop moving the goalposts

Originally published by The Intermediary

I’m writing this in the immediate aftermath of England’s monumental victory over Mexico at the World Cup, and I suspect like me, there will be a few bleary-eyed, but happy, individuals knocking around the market over the next few days.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, there will still be plenty of optimism that another positive result is just around the corner.

Football, much like the buy-to-let market over the past few years, has a habit of reminding us that plans rarely survive first contact with reality. You can prepare thoroughly, have a clear strategy and still find yourself having to react to events completely outside your control, which has certainly been the story of the mortgage market throughout 2026.

Our latest Fleet Mortgages Rental Barometer for Q2 perfectly captures just how quickly conditions can change. If the first quarter of the year was defined by markets moving from relative calm into uncertainty, then the second quarter effectively told the opposite story. It began with geopolitical tensions in the Middle East driving concerns around inflation, swap rates and mortgage pricing, before ending with greater stability returning and lenders once again reducing rates, broadening product choice and becoming much more competitive.

For advisers, this has reinforced something that has become increasingly clear over recent years, namely that market volatility is no longer an occasional disruption but has instead become part of the environment we all operate within, regardless of whether we are lenders, advisers or landlords.

The market continues to show its resilience

The encouraging aspect is not that some of the short-term volatility has disappeared but that landlords continue to demonstrate an impressive ability to absorb these periods of uncertainty and carry on investing for the long term.

Despite everything that happened during the opening weeks of Q2, average rental yields across England and Wales still increased by 0.3% year-on-year to 7.8%, while Fleet’s own lending figures continued to show healthy levels of landlord activity, with purchase business increasing from 33% of applications in Q1 to 36% in Q2 and more than 62% of applications coming from landlords who already own four or more investment properties.

The continuing professionalisation of the sector is equally apparent because limited company borrowing accounted for 78% of all applications during the quarter, while the average Fleet borrower now owns 16 investment properties compared with 10 just a year ago, suggesting experienced landlords remain confident enough to continue growing their portfolios where opportunities exist.

Those figures should provide reassurance because they paint a very different picture from some of the more pessimistic headlines that continue to appear about buy-to-let. The latest Bank of England lending statistics point in exactly the same direction, with new mortgage commitments increasing strongly during the second quarter, buy-to-let’s share of lending edging higher and arrears continuing to fall.

Taken together, those figures suggest a market that is adapting to changing conditions rather than retreating from them, which should give advisers confidence when discussing longer-term opportunities with landlord borrower clients.

The uncertainty Government can control

Financial markets will always react to geopolitical events, inflation data and wider economic developments, and nobody realistically expects those periods of uncertainty to disappear altogether. However, there is another type of uncertainty which is entirely avoidable because it is created by domestic policy rather than global events.

The Renters’ Rights Act has only recently come into force, yet before landlords, advisers and lenders have had a full opportunity to understand its full implications, there are already calls for further regulation of the PRS and continuing speculation around future EPC requirements and wider housing policy.

Perhaps this isn’t surprising given we are about to get a new Prime Minister, and there of course is an understandable desire to improve standards and outcomes for tenants, but equally there has to be recognition that every significant regulatory change requires time to be understood, implemented and absorbed by the market before another one is introduced.

One of the greatest strengths of the PRS has been its ability to adapt, but even the most resilient markets benefit from periods of stability, particularly when those markets are expected to continue attracting investment to meet growing housing demand.

Give the sector time to adjust

This is why I believe the most valuable contribution Government could make over the remainder of this Parliament would not necessarily be another package of reforms, but instead allowing the reforms already introduced to bed in properly before considering any sort of further major intervention.

The PRS has spent years responding to higher interest rates, tax changes, licensing requirements, regulatory reform, inflationary pressures and geopolitical shocks, yet landlords continue to provide homes for millions of tenants while advisers continue to guide clients through an increasingly complex market, and lenders continue supporting investment wherever it makes commercial sense.

Our Rental Barometer demonstrates that resilience rather than simply talking about it. The North East continues to deliver average yields of 9.2%, six regions continue to offer yields of at least 8%, purchase activity is recovering and lenders like Fleet have already responded to improving funding conditions by reducing rates and expanding product availability as market confidence has returned.

Those are not the characteristics of a sector in decline. They are the characteristics of a market that has matured, become more professional and continues to evolve despite a challenging backdrop.

None of us currently knows whether England will overcome Norway this weekend, or exactly where financial markets will move over the coming months, but if policymakers can at least resist the temptation to keep moving the regulatory goalposts, then landlords, advisers and lenders will be in a much stronger position to do what they have consistently demonstrated over recent years, which is adapt successfully, continue investing and providing the homes the country needs.