Register your rental property: what the new PRS database means for landlords and letting agents in England

The Government has confirmed how the ‘Register your rental property' service, will roll-out, its cost, and what agents and landlords need to do.

The next major stage of rental reform is taking shape. The countdown has begun.

The Government has confirmed that its new ‘Register your rental property’ service – the national registration service underpinning the new Private Rented Sector (PRS) database will begin rolling out across England from 15 December 2026.

Starting in the West Midlands and moving region by region, landlords will be required to register themselves and the properties they let. Each region will have a three-month registration period, with all actively let properties in England required to be registered by 14 November 2027.

For landlords, this introduces another significant compliance responsibility. For letting agents, it creates an equally important question: how can you help landlords get ready & support their registrations, without taking responsibility for something that legally remains theirs?

And with around 4.7 million households, approximately 11 million people, living in England’s private rented sector, this is no small administrative change for landlords.

What is ‘Register your rental property’?

‘Register your rental property’ is the public-facing service being introduced as part of the new national PRS database created by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025.

The Government’s intention is to create a clearer picture of landlords and rental properties across England, giving local authorities better information to identify non-compliance and take enforcement action.

Over time, it should also provide greater transparency for tenants. The Government has said that tenants will be able to see whether their landlord or prospective landlord is registered.

• Initially registration will apply to landlords with properties that are already let, or which become occupied during the rollout.

• A later stage is expected to go further. Under future legislation, unoccupied properties will also need to be registered before they can be marketed for let, and landlords and letting agents will need to include the relevant registration numbers on property adverts.

That makes this much more than a new Government form to complete. In time, registration is likely to become part of the operational journey of bringing a property to market.

How big is the change? 

The scale of England’s PRS helps put the new requirement into perspective.

The latest official figures show that 4.7 million households rent privately in England, representing around 19% of all households.

The English Private Landlord Survey also gives an indication of the shape of the landlord market. Some 45% of landlords own a single rental property, with another 38% owning between two and four. Just 17% own five or more properties but that group accounts for almost half of tenancies.

That matters when thinking about registration.

For a landlord with one or two properties, the challenge may simply be understanding a new process and finding the information needed to complete it.

For professional and portfolio landlords, the challenge quickly becomes one of data management at scale.

And agents are already involved in managing data processes on behalf of landlords everyday. Of approximately 4.2 million live deposits recorded in the 2024 English Private Landlord Survey, around 70% had been registered by agents on behalf of landlords.

Agents are therefore likely to be right at the centre of helping the sector adapt to the new register.

When will landlords need to register?

The Government has chosen a regional rollout rather than requiring every landlord in England to register at once.

The timetable currently announced is:

The relevant date is based on where the rental property is located, rather than where the landlord lives.

Landlords with properties across different regions should therefore understand that different parts of their portfolio may technically fall into different registration windows.

How much will it cost?

The current plans set the registration fee at £65 per property, per year.

For a landlord with a single property, that means £65 annually. A landlord with ten registered properties would be looking at £650 each year, while a 50-property portfolio would mean £3,250.

It is therefore important that landlords understand that this isn’t expected to be a one-off registration exercise. Keeping registrations current is set to become another ongoing responsibility of operating in the PRS.

What happens if a landlord doesn’t comply?

This is an area landlords shouldn’t ignore.

The Renters’ Rights Act provides local authorities with enforcement powers around the PRS database. Depending on the nature and seriousness of the non-compliance, the statutory framework provides for financial penalties of up to £7,000 for breaches and up to £40,000 for offences.

Repeated or continued non-compliance can escalate matters further.

There is another consequence that may prove just as significant in practice: the Act restricts a landlord’s ability to obtain possession of a property through the courts where the required active database entries are not in place, subject to limited exceptions.

The wider Renters’ Rights framework also provides for rent repayment orders in relation to specified offences.

So, registration shouldn’t be viewed as optional administration or something that can safely sit at the bottom of a landlord’s to-do list.

For agents, that makes documenting the advice and reminders given to landlords increasingly important too.

Can a letting agent register for a landlord?

The regulations make an important distinction between helping a landlord register and taking over their legal responsibility to register.

The landlord is expected to complete the registration process themselves, except in certain limited circumstances. Agents aren’t simply able to register every property on behalf of their clients.

However, agents will still have an important supporting role and will be able to support some of the process. Further Government guidance is expected on exactly what information letting agents and property managers will be able to provide.

That distinction is important.

The agent’s opportunity isn’t necessarily to take the obligation away from the landlord. It’s to make complying with it far easier.

So, what should letting agents be doing now?

There is time before the first registration window opens, but agencies shouldn’t necessarily wait until December.

Start by segmenting your portfolio by region. Identify which properties will fall into each registration window and which landlords have properties spanning multiple regions. This gives you the basis for a structured communications plan rather than one generic message to every landlord.

Audit the information you already hold. Check whether property, rent, occupancy, EPC, gas safety, electrical safety and licensing records are complete and current. Don’t just check whether a document exists; consider whether the underlying data is stored in a way that can be easily retrieved.

Identify the gaps. Registration could expose information that has historically lived in emails, spreadsheets, filing cabinets or individual team members’ knowledge. Finding those gaps now gives agencies time to resolve them.

Create a landlord communications journey. One email is unlikely to be enough. Consider an initial awareness communication, a reminder ahead of the landlord’s regional window, a checklist of information they’ll need, and follow-up reminders before the deadline.

Decide what your service will look like. If agents can provide certain information to the registration service, decide whether that becomes part of your standard management proposition or an additional service. Set expectations clearly around what the agency will do and what remains the landlord’s responsibility.

Record registration identifiers once issued. Registration numbers will become particularly important when the requirement to register before marketing is introduced. Agents will need somewhere reliable to record them and make sure the right identifiers flow into property advertising.

Think beyond registration itself. This isn’t happening in isolation. The PRS database sits alongside the wider Renters’ Rights legislation and an increasingly data-led approach to property compliance. The agencies best placed to manage that environment will be those that can see, quickly and accurately, what information they hold, what is missing and what needs action.

Technology will have an important role to play

For agents managing hundreds or thousands of properties, the practical challenge isn’t knowing that the database exists. It’s managing the volume of information associated with it.

The more times the same property information has to be manually found, checked and re-entered into different systems, the greater the administrative burden and the greater the opportunity for errors.

That’s why we’re already looking at how Vision+ can support HomeLet and Let Alliance customers as the new registration requirements take effect.

We’re building the ability for agents to record the relevant registration codes and information within Vision+, helping agencies keep those important identifiers connected to the landlord and property records they already manage.

We’re also looking more broadly at the information Vision+ already stores which landlords will need for registration – and how we can make that information more accessible, easier to review and broader in scope.

The objective is straightforward: where agents already hold the data required to support a landlord, they shouldn’t have to go hunting for it.

As more detail emerges about the way agents will be able to interact with the Government service, we’ll continue to look at where technology can remove duplication and make the compliance process easier to manage.

Could registration strengthen the agent-landlord relationship?

It may feel counterintuitive to describe another regulatory requirement as an opportunity, but there is one here.

Almost half of landlords in the English Private Landlord Survey own just one property. Many aren’t large professional operators with dedicated compliance teams.

At the same time, the regulatory environment they operate within is becoming more complex.

That’s where a professional letting agent can demonstrate significant value.

An agent who can tell a landlord when they need to act, what they need to provide, what’s already on file, what’s missing and what needs renewing is offering much more than rent collection or finding a tenant.

They’re providing reassurance that somebody understands the increasingly complex environment around letting a property.

The new database therefore adds another potential proof point to the value of professional property management.

The direction of travel is clear: better data, better compliance

The first ‘Register your rental property’ window opens in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026, before moving across England throughout 2027.

There are still details to come, particularly around exactly how letting agents and property managers will interact with the service.

But agents don’t need to wait for every detail before preparing.

The immediate job is to understand which landlords are affected, communicate the changes clearly and make sure the property and compliance information already held by the agency is accurate and accessible.

Longer term, the bigger lesson may be about data.

As registration numbers become connected to marketing, property information becomes more visible to regulators and tenants, and compliance requirements continue to expand, having the right information in the right place is becoming fundamental to running an efficient letting agency.

At HomeLet and Let Alliance, we’re continuing to develop Vision+ with that future in mind – helping agents bring together the information they need and making it easier to support landlords through a changing regulatory landscape.

Because while registration remains the landlord’s responsibility, helping make compliance simpler is exactly where a good letting agent – supported by the right technology – can make the difference.

Sources:

Housing Hub

English Housing Survey

English Housing Survey - Demographics

Parliament Renters' Rights Bill