Tenant satisfaction rises in early view of 2025/26 TSMs, says Housemark

Tenant satisfaction has seen a slight year-on-year improvement, according to new research from Housemark.

The latest analysis from the data company shows that overall tenant satisfaction has increased to 74.2% from 72.6% last year, with an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 tenants changing their perception from dissatisfied or neutral to one of the satisfied options.

The findings provide an early view of 2025/26 tenant satisfaction measure (TSM) results ahead of the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) national publication later this year. They are based on data from 223 registered providers managing 2.7 million homes, equivalent to 64% of England’s social housing stock.

Repairs and maintenance services reported the strongest improvements, rising from 73.6% to 76.2%, while satisfaction with the time taken to complete repairs increased from 69.4% to 73.2% – the largest improvement across the perception measures.

Satisfaction that homes are well maintained also increased from 72.3% to 74.5% and landlords’ repairs backlog fell by 8%.

Housemark attributes these improvements to increased investment in existing homes and repairs services.

Meanwhile, complaints volumes continued to grow as “recording improves and tenants become more confident in using complaints mechanisms to seek redress.”

Stage 1 median complaint rates increased by 11.6% and stage 2 increased by 32.9% during the year. Landlords are also responding more quickly, with more than 94% of complaints now handled within target timescales. Satisfaction with complaints handling increased to 37%, although it remains one of the sector’s lowest-scoring measures.

The proportion of landlords reporting 100% gas safety compliance fell from 56.9% to 41.7%.

Jonathan Cox, chief data officer at Housemark, said: “These results provide encouraging evidence that investment in homes and core services is starting to translate into improved tenant satisfaction. Repairs performance is improving across the sector and we’re beginning to see the link between operational improvements and resident perception.

“However, the results also show that challenges remain. Complaints volumes continue to rise and progress on communication and engagement measures is gradual. Landlords should use this data to understand where improvement is needed and take action now to strengthen services and build tenant trust.”

Housing associations recorded overall satisfaction of 78.2%, compared with a national median of 74.2%, while London landlords reported overall satisfaction of 64% - more than 10 percentage points below the national median.

Shared owners reported overall satisfaction of 48.3%, compared with 74.2% for renters.

In June 2026 the RSH’s new electrical safety checks TSM came into effect, which requires all social landlords managing more than 1,000 homes to publish data on satisfaction relating to electrical safety checks.