Summer volumes are rising - and the best agents are setting an even faster pace
June saw 2,239 tenancy conclusions processed through The Depositary, up by almost 14% on May, while the platform’s cumulative total rose to 87,267 conclusions. At the same time, the latest Tenancy Conclusion Index shows that although disputes are creeping up, the strongest agents and individual users continue to set new standards for speed, control and landlord outcomes.
June brought another clear rise in tenancy conclusion activity, with 2,239 tenancies processed through The Depositary during the month. That is an increase of just under 14% on May’s total of 1,968 and reflects the seasonal uplift that typically begins to build as the market moves into summer.
That rise in volume matters in its own right, but it is only part of the story. The bigger picture is that, as activity increases, some agents continue to deliver tenancy conclusions at a pace that would have looked ambitious not long ago and, in a few cases, almost unimaginable against the wider market backdrop.
That backdrop remains stark. Nationwide research found that tenants renting from a private landlord waited almost two months on average for their deposit to be returned. Against that, the average UK letting agent manually reconciles deposits in around 28 days, while agents using The Depositary are currently averaging 12 days. Even that, however, now masks some extraordinary top-end performance. One of our core goals has been to help agents achieve an average of 10 days or less, and June’s data suggests that this benchmark is becoming more achievable for a growing number of teams and users.
The standout individual result this month came from Duncan Yeardley, where one user averaged three-day deposit reconciliations across June. That is an exceptional figure by any standard. But it was not alone. Top users at National Home Move and Charters both averaged four days, while Jones Robinson posted a top performer at five days. At Cooper Green Pooks and Pat Robson, leading users averaged 4.7 days. Taken together, these are some of the fastest individual results seen on the platform to date.
What makes June especially interesting is that the strongest performance is not confined to individuals. Team-level delivery is beginning to deepen as well. At LRG, 115 users averaged 10 days or less, with 76 of those averaging seven days or less. At Charters, 75% of the team achieved 10 days or less, while around a third averaged seven days or less. Haslams saw 50% of the team average 10-day reconciliations, Swindon Home Finders saw a quarter of the team hit the same level, and the whole team at Reside Bath averaged just 9.4 days.
The same pattern can be seen in claims performance. At LRG, 75 team members averaged 100% of proposed claims secured, while 70% of the wider PM team averaged 90% or more. Johns & Co saw 25% of the team average 100%, while at Charters more than 50% of the team recorded perfect averages. Haslams saw more than 20% achieve 100%, with over 55% averaging 90% or more. At Paramount Properties, more than 65% of the team averaged 100%, while Jones Robinson saw 50% of the team do the same. Cooper Green Pooks matched that 50% figure, alongside an office-wide average of 94.64%. Robinson Michael Jackson averaged 92.75%, while both Breckon & Breckon and Reside Bath secured 100% of proposed deductions across all tenancies concluded in June.
Those figures matter because they reinforce the main point emerging from the series so far. Speed on its own is not the real story. What matters is speed combined with fairness, evidence and strong commercial outcomes for landlords. That is where professional agency delivery starts to separate itself clearly from the slower, more inconsistent experience still seen elsewhere in the market.
June also brought another sign of a market that is becoming more contested throughout the rental journey. During the month, 280 disputes were triggered, with a further 43 prevented through The Depositary’s Final Offer functionality. That continues the creeping rise in disputes we have been tracking and reflects a wider shift in tenant behaviour. Some of that may sit within a more rights-aware legislative environment, but operationally, there is also a growing sense across the sector that tenants are becoming more willing, and more equipped, to challenge proposed deductions. Cases involving deposit alternative products continue to show a higher rate of dispute, often where tenants are resisting an unexpected or unplanned payment request rather than a deduction from funds already held.
That makes the stronger agency results more significant, not less. In a market where challenging behaviour appears to be increasing, the ability to evidence claims clearly, communicate early and reach agreement quickly becomes a much more valuable operational skill. The agencies performing best in this month’s data are not simply moving faster; they are demonstrating a level of clarity and control that reduces friction and strengthens outcomes.
The cumulative impact of that is now becoming substantial. Across 87,267 tenancy conclusions to date, The Depositary has saved agents more than 180,000 working hours and removed over 1.4 million days of waiting for landlords and tenants expecting funds.
In June alone, the 2,239 tenancy conclusions processed through the platform saved agents more than 4,500 manual working hours and removed almost 36,000 days of waiting for landlords and tenants. Using a typical full-time working year of 1,750 hours, that is the equivalent of around 2.6 full-time working years returned to agency operations in a single month. At an average property manager cost of £22.43 per hour, it represents just over £100,000 of equivalent staffing time.
Looked at cumulatively, the figures become even more striking. 180,000 working hours equate to just over 102 full-time working years, and at the same hourly rate amount to more than £4 million of equivalent staffing time. On the waiting-time side, 1.4 million days is the equivalent of almost 3,900 years of landlord and tenant waiting time removed.
There is an even sharper way to frame the tenant impact. Using the self-managed market as a comparison point, June’s tenancy conclusions represent more than 100,000 days of waiting avoided for tenants expecting money back, compared with the sort of timelines still seen where properties are handled directly by DIY landlords. That is a useful reminder that better tenancy conclusion is not just an internal agency efficiency story. It also materially improves the customer experience at one of the most sensitive stages of the tenancy journey.
These numbers matter because they put operational improvement into terms the market can understand immediately. This is not just about digitising a workflow or trimming time off a back-office task. It is about giving time back to agency teams, reducing avoidable delay, improving confidence at the end of a tenancy and helping funds reach the people waiting for them sooner. In practical terms, that freed-up capacity can be redirected into the work agencies most want their teams focused on: winning instructions, improving compliance, progressing renewals, supporting landlords and maintaining service consistency across branches and portfolios.
The broader significance of June’s data, then, is not simply that volumes rose. It is that standards appear to be rising alongside them, even as dispute pressure builds. That is a more meaningful signal. As the market moves deeper into the busier summer period, the gap between average practice and best-in-class delivery is likely to become clearer still.
Tenancy conclusion has historically received far less attention than it deserves. Yet it sits at the intersection of operational efficiency, landlord service, resident experience and reputational trust. What this month’s Index suggests is that the strongest agents are no longer just proving that tenancy conclusion can be faster. They are showing that it can be more controlled, more consistent and more commercially effective too.
