Buy-to-let investors are capitalising on a cooling housing market, using their chain-free position and increasingly their cash reserves to push for steep price reductions, according to new analysis from Hamptons using Connells Group data.
In July 2026, landlords accounted for 14.1% of all home purchases in Great Britain, up from the 12.4% year-to-date average. As overall buyer demand cools, seasoned investors are starting to take advantage of a weaker market and leverage the certainty they can offer to more motivated sellers.
Investors became more ambitious with their offers last month and the average landlord paid just 88.7% of the initial asking price in July, according to the report.
In fact, over half (56%) of offers from investors during July 2026 were at least 10% below the seller’s initial asking price – the highest proportion since the first Covid lockdown in April 2020. This is up from 48% in June 2026 and 45% in July 2025.
Investors buying in cash looked to push for an even harder deal and 63% of offers from cash-backed landlords in England & Wales last month came in at least 10% under the initial asking price. By contrast, owner-occupiers were less ambitious. Last month, only 25% of offers from first-time buyers and 27% of offers from home movers came in at more than 10% below the first asking price.
Currently, sellers are increasingly willing to accept these lower offers. In July, 27% of offers from investors at 10% or more below the initial asking price were accepted, compared to just 18% in July 2025. Motivated flat owners are leading this trend: sellers of leasehold properties accepted 41% of these discounted offers, highlighting price weakness and lack of demand in the apartment market.
Hamptons said that the willingness to accept a lower offer typically correlates with how long a home has been on the market, with the average time on the market before an offer from an investor within 10% of the asking price was accepted at just 45 days during July.
The prevalence of lower investor offers was highest in Southern England, with the exception of London. The South East saw the highest share of opportunistic offers in the country, with 70% of investor offers coming in at least 10% below the first asking price. The South West followed with 60%.
However, many of these low offers were rebuffed by sellers. In the South East, offers which were 10% or more below the initial asking price accounted for 54% of accepted deals, and 44% in the South West.
By contrast, offers 10% or more below the asking price accounted for just 32% of agreed deals in the North East last month and just 16% in London where, despite a tough market, sellers were least likely to accept a lower offer.
Commenting, David Fell, lead analyst at Hamptons, said: “When the market slows, seasoned investors rarely stand on the sidelines for long. With homes taking longer to sell and chains proving fragile, landlords are using their liquidity and chain-free status to maximise their leverage when it comes to agreeing a price. In a market where certainty has become more valuable, these benefits tend to be worth more than in hotter markets where sellers often have multiple options on the table.
“At the same time, sellers who have been on the market for several months are becoming more pragmatic. This is particularly true for flat owners, where demand remains weaker than for houses, or for those selling in the South of England more generally. While higher borrowing costs continue to weigh on investment returns, landlords with cash or low levels of borrowing are finding that a slower market is creating opportunities to purchase at significantly lower prices than would have been possible a few years ago.”
