LettingAgentToday

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/professional-man-working-on-laptop-in-office-36733403/ A single tenancy file can contain passports, bank details, employment contracts, and emergency contacts. So, one breach can expose dozens of lives in minutes. Modern letting agencies sit on a goldmine of sensitive data, and criminals know it. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 3,158 data breaches were recorded in 2024, a 70% rise from 2021.

For commercial landlords, letting agents, and institutional asset managers across the UK, energy performance is no longer a secondary concern. Under the recently confirmed Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) framework, the regulatory path is set: by 2031, all rented non-domestic properties over 1,000 square metres must achieve a minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of Band B.

LRG – one of the UK’s largest agency groups – has launched a partnership to help landlords with Making Tax Digital. The deal will see Nexus made available across LRG’s UK lettings network, including Romans, Leaders, Stirling Ackroyd, Gibbs Gillespie, Chancellors and Manning Stainton among others. LRG manages more than 70,000 properties over 300 branches and 3,350 employees nationwide, making the agreement one of the largest single MTD rollouts in the UK lettings sector to date.

Almost 850,000 properties have left the private rented sector across the UK in the last decade – that’s around one in six rental properties. This is according to property industry consultancy TwentyEA. The consultancy says the timing of this stock loss is significant because more rental homes were sold as the Renters Rights Act moved closer.

The Deposit Service (TDS) is launching its Academy 2026 training programme this month. Each TDS course, together with two developed with the service’s partner, Inventory Hive, has been CPD-accredited, and property professionals who successfully complete all four may use the TDS Academy Approved Accreditation logo on their check-in and check-out reports for up to 18 months.

A new report uncovers new evidence that, despite legislative progress, leaseholders remain trapped by rising costs, complex rules, and an uncertain market. The report is based on insights and evidence from Propertymark members and current leaseholders and sets out why it remains essential that policymakers introduce further reforms to not only support the transition to commonhold but also existing leaseholders who cannot wait for the widespread adoption of commonhold.

Your Move branches in Scotland and Cumbria are sponsoring homegrown athletes at the Commonwealth Games this summer. LSL Estate Agency Franchising (LSL EAF) franchise partner, Steve Hardaker Ltd, owns and operates 13 Your Move branches is sponsoring Scottish athletes from towns where he has branches. Meanwhile, Your Move branches in Cumbria are supporting local young English athletes, Caitlyn Rowson and Brookyln Hale, with sponsorship ahead of representing their country at the games.

For independent letting agents, speed and accuracy are essential. The sooner a property is marketed, the sooner enquiries begin, viewings are arranged and tenancies can be agreed. But preparing listings for multiple property portals can often be one of the most repetitive and time-consuming parts of the lettings process. Clockwork Applications has been designed to remove that burden.

PropTech-enabled agency Dwelly has made its eighth acquisition of 2026. It’s snapped up the lettings book of West MIdlands-based AP Morgan, which adds some 500 fully managed properties to its portfolio, which now approaches 14,000. The deal sees AP Morgan’s lettings business join the Dwelly group, whilst the founding team will retain the AP Morgan sales business. The existing lettings management team will remain in place.

The number of available rental homes dropped below the previous year’s level in the second quarter of 2026 – for the first time in four years. The data, from Rightmove, suggests that in the post-pandemic market, the number of homes to rent reached record low levels and had been steadily increasing since. However, the total number of homes to rent is now 1% lower than a year ago.