More than two in five landlords experienced a rental void lasting longer than seven days in the past year, with those gaps averaging 66 days, according to new Pegasus Insight research.
The study found 41% of landlords had faced a void over seven days, even as the proportion reporting rent arrears fell to 26% from 42% at the peak in 2020. The figures point to a split picture for the private rented sector: fewer tenants are falling behind, but empty periods can still take a serious bite out of annual returns.
For portfolio owners, the risk is concentrated rather than evenly spread. Pegasus found 68% of landlords with 11 or more properties had experienced a void of more than seven days, compared with 35% of smaller landlords. That makes occupancy, re-letting speed and local pricing as important to a business plan as the headline arrears rate.
Rental voids remain a live cost for larger portfolios
The new figures come from Pegasus Insight’s quarterly Landlord Trends study, which tracks private landlord sentiment and portfolio experience with the NRLA. A 66-day average gap is not a minor operational delay. It means roughly two months without rent while mortgage payments, insurance, council tax and repairs can continue to run.
Large portfolios may have more resources to absorb a vacant property, but they also carry more exposure to re-letting delays across several homes. The research found two thirds of landlords with 11 or more properties had encountered arrears in the past year too. That combination can strain cash flow even where a portfolio looks healthy in aggregate.
This follows Residential Landlord’s August reporting on Paragon’s record-low arrears figure, which showed a more positive picture for rent collection. Pegasus adds an important limit to that story: low arrears do not automatically mean income is secure when a property sits empty for weeks.
Landlords need to price for empty days, not just bad debts
Avoiding arrears is still a core letting task, but voids demand a different response. A landlord can carry out careful referencing and still lose income if the asking rent is out of line, a repair delays marketing or an agent is slow to turn a property around between tenancies.
Residential Landlord’s earlier coverage of rising void periods highlighted the same pressure on running costs. The Pegasus data strengthens the warning for larger operators, whose scale does not protect them from local demand shifts or a run of expensive changeovers.
Landlords should therefore test their numbers against a realistic vacancy allowance, rather than treating a fully occupied year as the default. Checking achieved rents against current competition, planning repairs before a tenancy ends and agreeing re-marketing responsibilities with an agent can reduce the gap, but they will not remove it altogether.
The fall in arrears is welcome, particularly after the cost-of-living shock that pushed the 2020 figure to 42%. Yet the current data suggests the more immediate threat to income for many landlords may be the lost rent between tenancies, not the tenant who stops paying.
Opinion
Arrears data can look reassuring until it is set beside the cost of a long void. Landlords should take the fall in missed payments as good news, but not use it as an excuse to loosen control of letting and re-letting. A 66-day gap can quickly wipe out the benefit of a smooth tenancy elsewhere in the portfolio.
