Real Estate Bulletin - April 2026

Renters’ Rights Act 2025

The new assured periodic tenancy regime under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA) will be brought into force on 1 May 2026.

In this article we consider how the new regime for rent increases under the RRA will impact PRS, BTR, Co-living and SFR operators.

The government also recently announced that it intends to legislate in the Finance Bill 2026-27 so that any residential lease which will be considered an assured periodic tenancy will not give rise to a SDLT charge on the rent element. The government has stated it will set out the detail of this legislation at or before this year’s Budget and the legislation will apply retrospectively.

Upwards only rent review ban for commercial leases

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Although the provisions are not yet in force, the Act includes within it measures which ban upward only rent reviews in new commercial leases. We consider these in more detail here.

Webinar: Judgment on “anticipatory” BLOs and adjudication liabilities

Watch our essential update on Building Liability Orders (“BLOs”), following the eagerly awaited judgment in Crest Nicholson v Ardmore (2026) EWHC 789 (TCC).

Data Dive: Navigating Data Centres with Simmons

In this podcast series, we explore the world of Data Centres, which lie at the core of the digital infrastructure platform that enables the modern world to operate.