Best Accounting Software for Landlords in the United Kingdom (2026)

If you let out a flat, a house or a few buy-to-lets in your own name, your accounting software has two jobs: keep a clean record of rent and costs for each property, and turn it into what HMRC asks for. From 6 April 2026 that includes quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for landlords whose rental and self-employment income, before expenses, was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year, and the line falls in each of the next two years.

This guide is about choosing software as a landlord. Our guide to MTD software covers Making Tax Digital for Income Tax for everyone it reaches; if renting is a side line to your own business, our accounting software for sole traders guide covers the business half.

How we chose. Every one of the 10 accounting tools we track for UK businesses is priced by the engine behind our accounting software comparison; the picks here are the ones built to be used as a landlord. We looked first for a landlord set-up the vendor itself describes, then for MTD for Income Tax support, a free or low-cost route for a small portfolio, and how each handles joint owners and an accountant. Our data has no field for tracking each property, so for that we read each pick's own landlord page in October 2026 and say so where we rely on it. The table above opens at 5 invoices a month, one user, no employees and not VAT registered, the shape of a small portfolio; change any figure and it re-prices. Whether a vendor pays us commission played no part in which landlords' tools made the list.

Do landlords need accounting software for Making Tax Digital?

A landlord needs MTD software once their qualifying income passes the threshold for the year, and qualifying income counts rent before expenses. GOV.UK's guide to working out your qualifying income adds UK and foreign property income to any self-employment income, so a landlord with a small trade on the side can cross the line with neither income over it on its own.

The threshold steps down each year to 2028, and our MTD software guide sets out each year's line and start date from GOV.UK's eligibility guidance. A salary and dividends do not count towards qualifying income.

For a property you own with someone else, only your share counts. GOV.UK's own example is a property owned equally by two siblings that earns £50,000: each has £25,000 of qualifying income from it. Below the threshold, MTD bookkeeping software for landlords is a choice, not a rule, and you can keep records however you like and file a normal Self Assessment return.

What landlord bookkeeping software has to record for HMRC

Under MTD for Income Tax, a landlord's bookkeeping software keeps a digital record of every rent payment and expense, then adds them up into a quarterly update. HMRC's guidance on creating digital records sets out four things that are specific to property:

• All your UK lets are one business. HMRC treats every UK property you let as one "UK property business", so you send one update for all of them, not one per property.
• Foreign lets are recorded property by property. All your foreign lets form a separate "foreign property business" with its own update, and you keep a separate record for each foreign property.
• Mortgage interest is flagged. Even if your UK property turnover is under £90,000, a residential landlord must record each transaction as income or expense and mark any expense that is a restricted finance cost. Since April 2020 those costs are not deducted from rental profit; they earn a basic rate tax reduction instead.
• Joint lets can be simpler. You keep records only for your share of a jointly let property, and you can leave its expenses out of the quarterly updates as long as you add them before you submit the return.

Updates are due by 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, under HMRC's guidance on sending quarterly updates, and each one is a running total for the tax year so far. None of the four picks' landlord pages that we read says it handles foreign property income, so a landlord with a let abroad should ask the vendor before buying. HMRC's software finder asks which income sources you have, UK property and foreign property among them, and lists products to match.

Here is MTD for Income Tax and Self Assessment support for the four picks, with our wording intact:

"Limited" means some help short of preparing the full return; "No" means you or your accountant file the return through another product.

Can accounting software track each rental property?

Some landlord software can, but per-property tracking is not a field in our data, so we cannot filter or price on it. HMRC does not require it for UK lets, which go to HMRC as one business; landlords want it anyway to see which property earns its keep and to answer a letting agent or lender. For the four picks, this is what each vendor's own landlord page said when we read it in October 2026.

QuickFile has a landlord module that assigns expenses to specific properties and reports income and spending per property, along with recurring rent demands for tenants.

FreeAgent assigns income and costs to each property and shows profit for each one and for the whole portfolio.

Zoho Books tracks rental income and expenses for each UK property on its free plan.

Xero says on its landlord page that it is HMRC-recognised and MTD-compliant, but does not say whether it tracks each property, so ask before you rely on it.

If you need this, test it in a free trial with two of your own properties before you move your records.

Free bookkeeping software for landlords, and where each plan stops

Three of the four picks can cost a landlord nothing, each under its own condition. QuickFile is free below a yearly limit on ledger entries, FreeAgent is free while you bank with NatWest, RBS or Ulster Bank, or use Mettle monthly, and Zoho Books has a free plan. Xero has no free plan. The limits that matter for rental income are bank feeds and receipt capture:

Prices are each vendor's published monthly figure, normally before VAT; we do not add or remove VAT. Plans and pricing checked October 2026.

A landlord's books are small but regular: one rent payment per tenant a month, plus repairs, agent fees, insurance and mortgage interest. That is why a bank feed matters less than it does for a busy trade; a few rent payments a month are quick to import from a statement. Receipt capture matters more, because repair invoices and agent statements are the records you need when HMRC asks. FreeAgent caps receipt capture on the plan in our table, and the cap appears in the table above.

The table cannot price two of these free routes. Our calculator does not model the yearly invoice and expense limits on Zoho Books' free plan, so it shows the first paid plan, and FreeAgent's free route depends on your bank, so the table shows its rate card.

Small rental income: the £1,000 property allowance and Self Assessment

Not every landlord needs software, or even a tax return. GOV.UK's property allowance means that if your gross property income is £1,000 or less in a tax year, you do not need to tell HMRC. Above that, you can deduct the £1,000 allowance instead of your actual expenses, but not both, so a landlord with real repair and mortgage costs usually does better claiming the expenses.

Joint owners each get the £1,000 allowance against their own share of the gross rent. The allowance cannot be used on income from letting a room in your own home under Rent a Room, or on income from a company or partnership that you or someone connected to you owns, controls or is a partner in.

When rental income goes over the allowance, GOV.UK's renting out a property page says to contact HMRC if it is up to £2,500 a year, and to send a Self Assessment return if it is more than £2,500 after allowable expenses or more than £10,000 before them. If you do not usually send a return, you register by 5 October after the tax year in which you had the rental income.

At this size the case for software is the year-end, not HMRC: having repairs, insurance and agent fees already totalled saves a weekend in January.

Landlords who own jointly or also run a business

Joint owners and landlords with a second income need more from the software than one login and one income source.

Owning with a spouse, partner or relative. Each owner reports their own share and is assessed for MTD on their own share. If you both want to see the books, check how many users the plan allows:

Letting property and trading as a sole trader. Your rental and trading income are added together for the MTD threshold, and HMRC's guidance on quarterly updates says you send them for each self-employment and property business you have. Our sole traders guide compares software for the trading half; before you buy, ask the vendor whether one account can hold both incomes or whether you need two.

Letting through a limited company. MTD for Income Tax is for sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment, so lets held by your company sit outside it. The company files its own accounts and Corporation Tax, which calls for software built for a company rather than a landlord tool.

Choosing by how you own and let your property

Pick by how you own and run your lets:

• You own a few UK lets alone and do your own books: QuickFile, free below its ledger limit, with a landlord module.
• You own property jointly, or bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle: FreeAgent, which splits ownership per property and is free with those accounts.
• You own your lets alone and want a free plan from a larger suite: Zoho Books, once its end-of-year submission is live.
• Your accountant keeps your books and files your return: Xero, if that is what your accountant uses.
• You let property abroad: ask each vendor about foreign property income first, because none of these four pages says it handles it.