New research placing Leeds at the top of the list for the UK city where renters are least likely to secure a property with a garden should give pause to anyone tracking the direction of the private rented sector. The finding is not a quirky footnote about suburban lawns — it is a signal of a structural shift in how Britain's second-tier cities are being built, let and invested in. As city-centre living has been reshaped by a decade of high-rise, high-density apartment development, Leeds has become something of a case study in what happens when rental supply is optimised for yield and density rather than for the lifestyle demands tenants have increasingly prioritised since 2020.