Barely weeks into its implementation, the Renters' Rights Act is already reshaping the private rented sector in ways that suggest the legislation's stated goal of protecting tenants may be producing precisely the opposite effect. Early market data points to a sharp contraction in rental stock, rising asking rents in several regional markets, and a measurable uptick in landlords listing properties for sale rather than re-letting them. For an industry that has spent the past three years absorbing higher mortgage costs, tighter regulation, and the withdrawal of tax relief on finance costs, the abolition of Section 21 "no-fault" evictions and the shift to open-ended periodic tenancies appears to have tipped sentiment decisively against continued participation for a meaningful slice of the landlord population.