A fifth (20%) of buy-to-let firms arrange within the UK this yr are owned by non-UK nationwide shareholders, evaluation by Hamptons has discovered.
Indian traders made up the most important group of non-UK shareholders organising buy-to-let restricted firms within the first half of 2025, adopted by Nigeria, Poland and Eire.
The analysis is predicated on newly established buy-to-let restricted firms the place Firms Home lists a number of shareholders as a non-UK nationwide.
Again in 2016 simply 13% of restricted firms have been worldwide, however that quantity has surged after the previous Conservative administration reduce mortgage tax reduction and changed it with a 20% tax credit score.
Aneisha Beveridge, head of analysis at Hamptons, mentioned: “Regardless of the challenges going through landlords, non-UK nationals are more and more embracing UK buy-to-let. The London market has lengthy been a world one, well-known throughout East Asia, the US, and the EU.
“Nevertheless, demand from non-UK nationals has steadily been shifting into decrease worth markets outdoors the capital, the place the majority of progress in each home costs and rents has been seen lately.
“Whereas overseas-based traders are a part of the image, nearly all of purchases by non-UK nationals mirror home demand. Up till 2021, this demand was most definitely to come back from EU nationals based mostly within the UK, however since then, it has shifted to mirror adjustments in broader migration patterns.
“Indian and Nigerian nationals are more and more probably to purchase UK buy-to-let property in a restricted firm construction.”
The share of non-UK shareholders coming from the EU has fallen from 65% in 2016 to 49% in 2025, amidst Brexit.
Non-UK nationals make up the most important proportion of shareholders in buy-to-let firms registered in London – a development that has remained unchanged between 2016 and 2025. This yr, 27% of recent buy-to-let firms registered within the capital are owned by non-UK nationals.
Over half of the brand new firms arrange in Kensington & Chelsea (54%) and Hammersmith & Fulham (51%) have been owned by non-UK nationals.
Nevertheless, areas outdoors the capital have typically seen the most important progress in overseas possession.
Between 2016 and 2025, the share of recent non-UK nationwide landlords greater than doubled within the East Midlands, West Midlands and Scotland.
Runnymede noticed the best share of recent firms arrange by non-UK nationals this yr of another native authority within the nation, at 59%.
