Tenancy fraud is one of the biggest threats facing landlords and letting agents today.
But it isn't a threat that affects everywhere equally.
In fact, one UK region alone records a fraud rate around twice the national average, and it's not the only hotspot. Dig into the regional numbers, and you’ll find that tenancy fraud is heavily concentrated in three specific parts of the country.
Which raises the obvious question: why these three, and what should agencies operating there actually be doing differently?
Below is a breakdown of the UK’s highest-risk tenancy fraud locations, why bad actors target them, and what you can do to stop them.
Tenancy fraud doesn’t happen at random.
Criminals deliberately target fast-paced rental markets where quick turnarounds make manual verification difficult.
After analysing more than a million references, here’s what Goodlord’s ‘Tenancy Fraud Is No Joke’ revealed about the UK’s biggest fraud hotspots:
Ranking third nationally at 3.4 confirmed fraud cases per 1,000 references, the North West sits just ahead of the national baseline of 3.3.
Driven by major metropolitan hubs like Manchester and Liverpool, the region shares the same core vulnerabilities seen across top hotspots: a large, fast-moving tenant demographic combined with intense market competition.
The sheer volume of transactions in these Northern metropolitan markets gives fraudsters ample opportunity to pass forged applications through busy branch networks.
The West Midlands holds the UK’s second-highest fraud rate at 3.5 confirmed cases per 1,000 references.
This trend aligns with an industry pattern of fraud being “heavily concentrated in larger urban markets”.
Driven by Birmingham, the region features dense populations, rapid urban expansion, and intense competition for stock. These conditions create the exact operational pressure fraudsters look to exploit.
While the region does not carry London’s high-profile reputation as a primary fraud hub, it’s easy for agents in this area to underestimate their risk profile. Robust security protocols are required to defend yourself against increasingly sophisticated tactics.
London is in a league of its own.
At 6.7 confirmed fraud cases per 1,000 references, the capital’s fraud rate runs at nearly double the national average, outstripping every other region in the UK.
The reason comes down to scale and competition.
London combines the country's largest concentration of renters with its tightest supply of available property. High demand creates intense pressure for fast turnarounds, providing cover for illegal subletting rings.
Crucially, the capital’s vast concentration of premium, high-rent properties offers an unusually lucrative payout, making London the ultimate reward target for organised fraud networks.
For agencies operating in the capital, that combination of volume, competition, and premium stock means fraud isn't an occasional problem to flag.
It's a structural feature of the market that referencing processes need to be built around.
| Region | Average fraud rate (per 1000 references) |
| Greater London | 6.7 |
| West Midlands | 3.5 |
| North West | 3.4 |
| National average | 3.3 |
Look closer, and all three hotspots share the same underlying conditions that fraudsters exploit.
But this raises a sharper question. Is fraud simply a byproduct of market size, or does property value itself actively drive risk? The data shows that as monthly rental values rise, the rate of attempted fraud accelerates exponentially.
Across the mainstream rental market, fraud rates sit between three and six per 1,000 applications. However, for properties renting for more than £10,000 a month, that figure jumps to 20 confirmed fraud cases per 1,000 applications, roughly six times the mainstream average.
The reason is simple: fraud follows the money.
Building a convincing fraudulent application — particularly a synthetic identity backed by fabricated payslips, bank statements, and employer references — takes time, planning, and capital.
For criminals, targeting a single high-value property in London or Manchester offers far greater return on investment than attempting multiple lower-value lets. A successful application yields immediate control of a luxury asset, opening the door to illegal subletting rings or short-let exploits.
This creates three distinct operational vulnerabilities, especially for enterprise agencies and multi-branch networks:
A referencing process built around manual document checks wasn't built to catch this. Which is why you need a consistent and robust defence strategy that doesn't depend on which office, or which negotiator, happens to be reviewing the file.
To mitigate exposure across urban centres and high-value portfolios, agencies must stop asking individual negotiators to be fraud detectors. Instead, agency leaders must create a centralised framework based on the 5 Ps of Fraud Governance:
Fraud prevention starts with organisational consistency. Every branch, whether in a fraud hotspot or not, should follow the same referencing standard.
You must check:
Trusted Sources verifies income directly through Open Banking, payroll, and HMRC. Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) further reduces risk.
A single fraudulent tenancy can damage a landlord relationship. Multiple failures across branches, particularly in high-value hotspot markets, become a reputational and commercial risk.
You must check:
Trusted Sources reduce the chances of fraud before move-in. Rent Protection Insurance adds a second layer, giving landlords cover if circumstances change during the tenancy.
As fraudulent documents become harder to spot, agencies need objective, auditable decisions that are difficult to challenge.
You must check:
Trusted Sources retrieves income data directly from banks, payroll providers, and HMRC, giving every branch access to verified information from the original source, not documents supplied by the applicant.
The greatest fraud risk for enterprise agencies is often inconsistency. Different branches following different processes inevitably creates gaps, and in hotspot regions, that's exactly the gap fraudsters are looking for.
You must check:
Trusted Sources integrates directly into the existing referencing journey. Eligible applicants are automatically prompted, verified data populates the report, and branch workflows don't need to change.
Fraud is becoming more sophisticated, driven by AI-generated documents and shifting tactics. Strong governance means continuously raising verification standards, not setting a process once and leaving it.
You must check:
More than 88% of eligible applicants already connect through Trusted Sources today, showing source-based verification works at scale, even in the country's busiest, highest-risk markets.
The agencies best equipped to manage fraud in these hotspots don't ask every negotiator to become a fraud expert. They build governance frameworks that make robust verification automatic, consistent, and scalable across every branch.
Fraud follows opportunity, and right now, that opportunity sits in Greater London, the West Midlands, and the North West. These regions have the highest rents and competition.
They're also where the UK’s highest-value properties are concentrated, which makes consistent governance a necessity for the agencies operating there, not a nice-to-have.
The agencies best placed to manage that exposure are the ones that build structural governance frameworks that make robust, source-based verification automatic, consistent, and scalable across every single branch.
Ready to see the full picture? Download the Tenancy Fraud Is No Joke report for the complete regional data, fraud trends, and prevention strategies covered in this blog.