Samuel Leeds' Eviction Format Heads to Texas as UK Investors Eye US

Samuel Leeds, the property investor and YouTube educator who built a substantial following through his "Eviction" competition format, is taking the concept to Texas for its first American series. The move sees a UK-born property entertainment and training brand — part reality-television spectacle, part investor bootcamp — cross the Atlantic at a moment when British landlords are increasingly scrutinising overseas markets as an alternative to a domestic buy-to-let sector under sustained regulatory pressure.

The significance here extends well beyond one entrepreneur's business expansion. Leeds has built a multi-million-pound education empire teaching strategies such as rent-to-rent, HMO conversions and deal-sourcing to thousands of UK investors, many of whom are landlords looking for ways to generate cash flow in a market squeezed by higher mortgage costs, tighter licensing rules and the looming Renters' Rights Bill. His decision to launch a Texas edition of the format is a clear signal that UK property educators see growing appetite among British investors for exposure to US real estate — a market offering higher yields, more landlord-friendly legislation and no equivalent of Section 21 abolition anxiety.

Texas is a logical testing ground. The state has no income tax, comparatively low property taxes relative to coastal US markets, and a landlord-tenant framework that remains considerably less restrictive than England's post-reform regime. Cities such as Dallas, Houston and San Antonio have posted population growth rates of 1.5–2% annually over the past five years, driven by corporate relocations and domestic migration from higher-cost states. Average gross rental yields in parts of Texas run between 7% and 9%, compared with UK averages closer to 5–6% nationally, and considerably lower again in London and the South East, where yields in Surrey commuter towns can fall below 4% once service charges and mortgage costs are factored in.

For UK landlords, the contrast with domestic conditions is stark. Northern English cities — Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle — remain the strongest performers within the UK for yield-focused investors, with Liverpool postcodes regularly delivering 7%+ gross yields and Manchester continuing to attract institutional build-to-rent capital on the back of strong graduate retention and jobs growth. Birmingham, too, benefits from HS2-adjacent regeneration and a deep private rental demand base. Yet even these strongest UK markets now face higher borrowing costs, with average buy-to-let mortgage rates sitting around 5.5–6%, alongside increased compliance costs from EPC requirements and licensing schemes that vary borough by borough. Against that backdrop, a market offering higher yields with lighter regulatory friction understandably appeals to experienced portfolio landlords looking to diversify geographically rather than exit property altogether.

The broader trend this reflects is the professionalisation and internationalisation of UK property education as an industry in its own right. Companies built around courses, mentoring and televised-style investor competitions have expanded rapidly since 2015, monetising the aspiration of ordinary savers to build passive income through property. As UK regulatory change has made some domestic strategies — particularly HMOs and short-term lets — more administratively burdensome, these education brands have followed capital flows abroad, into markets such as Dubai, Portugal and now the US Sun Belt. Texas, alongside Florida, has become a particular focus for UK outbound property capital because of dollar-denominated rental income, comparative legal simplicity around evictions, and continued net inward migration supporting rental demand.

Over the coming 6–12 months, expect this to accelerate rather than remain a novelty. UK-based sourcing agents and education platforms will likely expand US-facing content and partnerships, particularly targeting landlords disillusioned by the Renters' Rights Bill's abolition of fixed-term tenancies and Section 21, alongside first-time buy-to-let investors priced out of southern England altogether. Commercial and development investors should also take note: currency risk, US mortgage qualification hurdles for non-resident borrowers, and unfamiliar insurance and tax treatment (including US estate tax exposure for UK nationals holding property directly) remain significant barriers that education marketing rarely emphasises adequately. First-time buyers in the UK are largely unaffected directly, but the broader signal — that experienced capital is looking outward — matters for anyone assessing future UK rental supply, since every landlord who redirects capital into Texas rather than Teesside is one fewer unit added to Britain's already constrained private rental stock.

The real story behind Leeds' Texas launch is not the competition format itself but what it represents: a maturing UK property investor class actively exporting capital and expertise to jurisdictions offering better risk-adjusted returns. Domestic policymakers should read this as a warning sign. If Britain continues to layer regulatory cost onto private landlords without addressing housing supply fundamentals, the exit of experienced capital towards markets like Texas will not remain a niche trend — it will become a structural drain on UK rental housing precisely when demand for it is rising fastest.