Retail investors are returning to UK markets
For decades, British retail investors have snubbed their home market. But in 2026 things are changing, writes Rupert Hargreaves
At the end of 2024, domestic investors owned just 11.6 per cent of UK equities while international investors owned a record 58.8 per cent. This number speaks volumes about the UK investors’ general apathy towards their home market (and, perhaps, the state of that market) but it hasn’t always been this way. In the early 1980s, UK individuals owned 28.2 per cent of the market, while UK pension and insurance funds owned 68.25 per cent. Foreign ownership was 3.6 per cent.
It’s hard to estimate how much this shift has cost the economy, but the London Stock Exchange owner LSEG believes the decline in domestic retail ownership has resulted in the withdrawal of £2 trillion from UK-listed companies since 2000.
But there are some signs things are starting to change following the introduction of the snappily named Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations, which became fully effective in mid-January. The new rules replaced the old EU-derived UK Prospectus Regulation and have been designed to help widen everyday investor access to public equity and debt capital markets by cutting the cost of raising capital.
In the months immediately following the changes, domestic retail investor allocation in fundraising jumped 3.3x on the same period in 2025. A total of 85 per cent of London market fundraisings over £100m this year have included everyday investor offers, according to Retailbook, and retail capital’s share of all equity capital raised in the UK has risen to the highest in seven years. This trend runs counter to the general slowdown in UK capital markets activity. One in three UK equity raises now carries a retail tranche, up from roughly one in 10 in 2020. In the last 18 months, Retailbook alone has helped drive £1.7bn of retail capital into UK capital markets.
What are Brits investing in?
Some of the biggest raises with retail involvement in the past 18 months include Seraphim Space Investment Trust, which raised £137m with 33 per cent coming from retail; Supermarket Income REIT, which raised £100m with 10 per cent from retail; Princes Group, which raised £187m with 7.3 per cent from retail. Smaller investors also supported United Utilities’ £800m fundraise earlier this year to the tune of around £5m. The largest raise this year by far was the £1.9bn equity placing by Rosebank Industries. Retail investors added an additional £7.7m to the deal.
In the past two weeks, Hammerson has launched a £189m placing with a small (0.2 per cent) retail allocation to help fund its deal to buy a 50 per cent stake in Manchester Arndale, while Tritax Big Box REIT raised £350m selling 213m new shares with 6.4m going to retail to fund its next wave of data centre growth.
And it’s clear retail investors want more opportunities, not just in the UK, but overseas as well. The FCA’s new framework, Marex Financial, using the Winterflood Retail Access Platform, helped allocate £270m worth of shares to UK investors in the SpaceX IPO, against nearly $1bn of total local demand.
Increasing demand from retail investors won’t save the UK capital markets in itself, but this shift suggests retail investors are willing and able to support the UK’s listed company growth ambitions. Policymakers should take note.
Rupert Hargreaves is chief operating officer at Morning Wire
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