Alongside the homes listed on Rightmove and Zoopla, a share of property changes hands privately, without ever being openly marketed. This guide sets out what the published data shows and how investors reach that stock.
In short
- About 7.4% of homes sold in Great Britain in 2023 transacted off-market, down from 9.6% in 2022, but one in three above £1 million.
- On our own estimate from that share, around 90,000 UK sales a year complete without having been openly marketed.
- The Renters’ Rights Act, the EPC Band C target for 2030 and the 5% SDLT surcharge all weigh on landlords deciding whether to sell.
- Reduced competition and flexible structuring are the channel’s reliable advantages, but a price discount is not guaranteed.
- Off-market deals need more due diligence, not less, since agent paperwork such as EPCs and floor plans may be missing.
In this guide: 9 sections
- The size of the off-market sector
- Why vendors sell off-market
- The investor advantage, and its limits
- The property types that trade privately
- Three pressures on landlords in 2026
- Where off-market deals cluster
- How to access off-market deals
- The due diligence that matters
- When selling off-market makes sense
Hamptons’ research found that approximately 7.4% of homes sold in Great Britain in 2023 transacted off-market. For properties above £1 million, that figure jumped to one in three. Above £2 million, it was more than half. But off-market is not just a game for super-prime London mansions.
Hamptons put the 2022 share at 9.6%, a five-year high, so the national share fell in 2023 even as the share above £1 million rose. In early 2022, Hamptons recorded 37,000 off-market sales in a single quarter, the highest since 2007.
This guide pulls together the published data, explains the mechanics, and answers the question that matters most to investors: how to reach this market, and whether it is worth the effort.
Here is why that matters, and what is changing for landlords in 2026. If you want to see what is available right now, browse our current off-market investment properties.
The size of the off-market sector
No official source measures it. Off-market transactions are, by definition, not centrally tracked. There is no off-market flag on Land Registry price paid data or in HMRC monthly property transaction data. But the size can be estimated.
HMRC’s monthly series puts UK residential transactions in 2025 at about 1.21 million.
Apply Hamptons’ 7.4% and you get around 90,000 UK transactions a year that complete without having been openly marketed. That is our own arithmetic on someone else’s percentage, not a measured figure.
Note also that the HMRC transaction count is UK-wide while Hamptons measured Great Britain, and its share is for 2023, so the total is indicative rather than exact.
The gap is filled by a network of relationships:
- Direct vendor-to-investor transactions.
- Estate agents’ pocket listings offered to preferred buyers before public marketing.
- Sourcing agents connecting investors with motivated sellers.
- Solicitors and accountants aware of clients looking to dispose of property.
- Probate sales where executors want speed over maximum price.
At the investment end of the market, with buy-to-let properties, HMO portfolios, multi-unit freehold blocks and commercial conversions, a private sale can make more sense. Many of these assets never suit Rightmove because the buyer pool is specialist.
An 8-unit freehold block in Burnley does not benefit from thousands of Rightmove browsers; it needs three serious investors who understand the numbers. That is an off-market deal by nature.
Why vendors sell off-market
Understanding why vendors choose to sell privately is the key to understanding how to find them. It is rarely about secrecy for its own sake. It is about solving a problem that the open market cannot solve, or solving it faster.
Speed and certainty
An open-market sale can take months from listing to completion, and a chain collapse resets the clock.
Off-market vendors who accept a lower price in exchange for a faster, chain-free completion are not irrational; they are making a calculated trade-off. A landlord facing a £10,000 EPC upgrade bill and a mortgage rate increase might rationally accept a below-market price to exit in weeks rather than months.
Discretion
Not every vendor wants the world to know they are selling. Divorce settlements, business disputes, debt-related disposals, and probate situations all create scenarios where privacy has genuine value.
Testing the market
Some vendors use an off-market period to gauge interest before committing to full public marketing. If they get an acceptable offer quietly, they save on estate agent marketing costs, portal fees, and the disruption of viewings. If they do not, they can still go to market publicly without the listing looking stale.
Avoiding the digital footprint
A property that sits on Rightmove for months, with price reductions visible in the listing history, develops a stigma. Vendors who are unsure about their asking price may prefer to test off-market first, preserving the option of a fresh public launch if the private route does not work.
Landlord portfolio exits
Landlords leaving the private rented sector are a common source of off-market supply, and regulation is adding to the pressure. Landlords exiting the sector, motivated by the Renters’ Rights Act, the EPC Band C deadline, Section 24 tax restrictions, and rising compliance costs, often prefer to sell their portfolios quietly to another investor rather than vacating tenants, refurbishing, and listing on the open market.
Section 24 has restricted landlords’ tax relief on finance costs since it began phasing in from April 2017, and many landlord disposals happen privately, investor to investor.
The investor advantage, and its limits
Off-market deals are not just about access; they are about economics. Both sides trade something: the vendor trades open market exposure for speed and discretion, the buyer trades competition for the work of finding and checking the deal.
- Price is negotiable, but the discount is not a market constant. Off-market pricing is not centrally measured, so there is no reliable average discount. A genuine discount appears where a seller is trading price for speed and certainty, which is common in probate, distress and portfolio exits. The same channel also carries prime sales going at or above asking price, because the seller avoids a public price-reduction trail: Hamptons found off-market homes achieved 99.5% of asking in 2022 against 99.1% for openly marketed ones. Treat any specific discount quoted at you as a claim to test against comparables, not as a feature of the channel.
- Reduced competition. A property listed on Rightmove can attract many enquiries quickly. An off-market deal might have one or two interested parties. You are not bidding against other buyers; you are solving the vendor’s problem.
- Better structuring opportunities. Off-market vendors are often more flexible on terms. Delayed completions and other flexible terms are more achievable when you are dealing directly with a motivated seller.
- First-mover advantage. The advantage sits with investors who can see stock before it is publicly listed, simply because fewer bidders see it at that stage.
The flip side is that off-market deals require more due diligence, not less. Without the structure of an estate agent’s marketing pack, you may receive less information upfront.
The property types that trade privately
Not everything sells quietly. Certain types of property are common in the private channel.
- Landlord portfolio disposals. Single buy-to-lets, small HMO portfolios, and multi-unit freehold blocks where the vendor is an existing landlord looking to exit. These are a staple of off-market investment transactions.
- Probate properties. When a property passes to executors or beneficiaries who do not want to manage a rental, the priority is usually speed and simplicity. Where executors put speed ahead of price, these sales can come with below-market pricing.
- Properties with issues. Short leases, failed EPCs, incomplete building control sign-off, structural problems, sitting tenants and complex title all make a property harder for estate agents to sell on the open market. For sophisticated investors who understand how to price and resolve these issues, they represent opportunity.
- Commercial-to-residential conversions. Buildings with permitted development potential under Class MA, or full planning consent for conversion, can be sold off-market to developers and investors who can move quickly. We list relevant opportunities on our development land opportunities page.
- Multi-unit portfolio acquisitions. The larger the transaction, the more likely it is to happen off-market. A £2 million portfolio of 12 flats across two freehold blocks does not benefit from a Rightmove listing. It needs a targeted introduction to a small number of qualified buyers with the capital and expertise to transact.
Three pressures on landlords in 2026
Three regulatory and market forces add to the reasons a landlord might sell privately to another investor. These specific pressures apply in England, and SDLT also applies in Northern Ireland. Scotland runs its own tenancy law, with no Section 21 equivalent, its own energy efficiency rules for rented homes, and Land and Buildings Transaction Tax instead of SDLT, so a Scottish landlord should read this section as illustrative of the kind of pressure, not as their own rulebook.
1. Section 21 abolition under the Renters’ Rights Act, in force since 1 May 2026
Section 21 no-fault evictions are abolished. Illegally evicting or harassing a tenant has always risked criminal prosecution under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Since 1 May 2026, a council can also impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 for the same conduct, under a new power the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 inserted into that Act. All tenancies are now periodic.
Landlords who want to sell with vacant possession now need to use Ground 1A, which requires a 4-month notice period that cannot expire before the tenancy is 12 months old, meaning the earliest a landlord can serve notice is around the 8-month mark.
The faster route is to sell off-market to another investor who will take the tenants on. No vacant possession needed. No void period.
2. EPC 2030: The upgrade-or-sell decision
The Warm Homes Plan and the government response published with it on 21 January 2026 commit to requiring privately rented homes to meet EPC Band C by 1 October 2030, with landlords required to spend no more than £10,000 per property.
The regulations to make that law had not been laid at the last check in September 2026; the government says it aims to lay them so that they come into force in 2027. Until then, the legal minimum remains EPC Band E, with a £3,500 spending cap.
The government estimates the average spend needed to meet the new standard at £5,400 per property. Landlords facing that bill are making a decision: invest the capital and stay, or sell before the deadline.
3. The SDLT squeeze on returns
With the additional property surcharge at 5% and the nil-rate threshold at £125,000, acquisition costs weigh heavily on returns. Our SDLT guide sets out the full impact.
Where an off-market seller is genuinely trading price for speed, the discount is the difference between a deal that hits your target return and one that does not. Where they are not, there is no discount at all, which is why the price has to be tested against comparables on every deal rather than assumed from the channel.
Where off-market deals cluster
The published data on where off-market sales concentrate is about price more than place.
- Higher price bands. Hamptons found 33% of homes above £1 million sold off-market in 2023, rising to 51% between £2 million and £5 million and 54% above £5 million.
- London. In 2022, Hamptons found 23% of London homes sold without open marketing, well above its national figure for that year.
- Investment stock. Tenanted buy-to-lets, HMOs and multi-unit blocks sell to a specialist buyer pool, so a targeted introduction can suit them better than a portal listing.
How to access off-market deals
Investors reach off-market stock through a small number of routes.
- Work with a sourcing agent or property broker that carries the right registrations. This is the most practical route for investors who do not have time to build their own vendor networks. Anyone doing estate agency work on residential property in the UK must belong to The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, so check membership, and check they are registered with the ICO for data protection. At BlackBook Investments, we are registered with The Property Ombudsman and the ICO.
- Build your own sources. Local estate agents holding pocket listings, letters to owners identified through Land Registry data, investor networks, and solicitors and accountants handling probate, divorce and debt situations can all produce leads, but each takes time to build.
The due diligence that matters
Off-market deals carry a specific due diligence requirement that open-market purchases do not. When you buy from Rightmove, the estate agent has typically prepared an EPC, floor plans, the property information form, and comparable evidence. When you buy off-market, you may receive none of that.
Some checks are especially important on off-market deals:
- Building control sign-off, which can be missing on converted properties.
- The EPC rating, which can be worse than claimed.
- HMO licensing status, which may have expired or never been obtained.
- Tenant deposit protection, which can be missing in informal landlord portfolios.
Any discount you secure on an off-market purchase is only valuable if the property does not come with hidden liabilities that wipe it out. Due diligence is not optional; it is the price of admission.
When selling off-market makes sense
This guide is primarily written for investors, but if you are a vendor reading this, the off-market route might be right for you if:
- You own tenanted investment property and want to sell without disrupting your tenants or creating void periods.
- You are facing EPC upgrade costs you would rather not invest.
- You have inherited property and want a fast, simple disposal.
- You are restructuring a portfolio and want to sell multiple assets in a single transaction.
- You value discretion and want to avoid public marketing.
If any of that applies, we can help. We connect vendors with our qualified investor network, and we offer a free, confidential desktop valuation with no obligation to proceed.
What this means for property investors
Off-market sales are a smaller share of the national market than in 2022, but the channel still runs at scale, and above £2 million more than half of homes sold this way in 2023. Landlord exits, regulatory pressure, and the economics of speed and discretion keep it relevant to investors.
For investors, off-market access is a competitive advantage rather than a luxury. Reduced competition and flexible structuring are the reliable advantages of the off-market channel, and where a seller is trading price for certainty the entry price improves too. Together they help returns at a time when higher SDLT, tighter regulation, and rising compliance costs are squeezing margins from every other direction.
BlackBook Investments is registered with The Property Ombudsman and the ICO.
Browse our current off-market stock. Explore multi-unit portfolios. See our early access property deals. Or get in touch to register your investment criteria.
This is general information, not advice on your position, so take independent advice before acting. BlackBook Investments does not provide tax or legal advice. Always verify current SDLT rates on GOV.UK and consult a qualified adviser before making acquisition decisions.