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Lettings agents: missed opportunity?

ended 16. February 2026

We’re writing an article on whether lettings agents should be more proactive when it comes to passing tenants that would likely get a mortgage to their chosen (in-house or external) brokers given the rise in the number of 100% mortgages and improving affordability? Would this help their sales arm, as the tenants already live in the area? Even if the tenant can't get a mortgage now, should agencies nevertheless not signpost them to where they can be supported towards a future purchase? Might such practice ease the lack of rental supply and encourage house builders to build more? Also, would a tenant with a homeownership plan not ultimately be a better tenant?

How common is this practice and, if you’ve worked with a lettings agent to this end, what are the pain points (annoying existing landlords potentially) or formalising the process? 

Some brokers have said they have worked with lettings and sales agents to this end but is it something that could be streamlined to get more people onto the ladder? How might that work? Are there any platforms that support this process? Any insights, intel or anecdotes, send them across by 09:30 Monday.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Patricia Ogunfeibo
Founder & non-practicing Solicitor at tenant2owner
Some lettings agents still gatekeep their tenants, but that's a losing strategy in this day and age.

With 100% mortgages returning and affordability improving, many tenants now have a genuine path to homeownership, and agents who ignore this risk becoming irrelevant.

The opportunity is clear: agencies sit on databases of qualified, local, employed tenants who want to buy but assume they can't.

Most just need myth-busting. That's why we're partnering with Hello Neighbour to signpost tenants to free resources like tenant2owner, which does the educational heavy lifting agents can't always provide themselves.

The payoff for lettings agents? Some commission when tenants buy, and stronger relationships when they don't. Let’s also not forget the chance to make a demonstrable social impact by helping solve the housing crisis. There are no good excuses that I’m aware of for sitting this out.
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Simon Bridgland
Broker at Charwin Private Clients
Letting offices and estate agents are usually two separate entities so are often poorly managed between them, with too much competition between the offices. A well run relationship would happily turn existing tenants into purchasers, and actively farmed tenants lined up as potential buyers. In the main you see short sighted agents unwilling to let go of a good tenant. The sales people in each office wouldn’t normally be rewarded commissions for passing a tenant to the sales side, which is a real own goal for the owners who have both and could leave a space for new tenants desperate to find a home. Using existing tenants of an agency as buyers, would give vendors confidence of how good the buyer is, plus, the added bonus of cheaper marketing cost, as purchasers are en tap.
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Zaman Sheikh
Director at Northwood Chelmsford & WN Properties Shenfield
So i manage over 300 properties across both branches. We do get Landords selling. Out fist port of call is to ask the tenants whether they would look to buy. A lot of them say no they wouldn’t want to as there are a lot of reasons why they are renting. We have always asked about 100% mortgages but its great in theory but I’ve never seen it work in practice