A lot will depend on house vs flat. In flats it’s normally part of the main lease that floors are carpeted for noise reduction.

I can also see that carpet is easily replaceable and relatively low cost when damaged. Hard wood floor or tiles would be harder to fix up incase of damage.

Also considering heating systems in the uk, hard floors without underfloor heating will be very cold in the winter months.

This isn’t really a rental/lanlord thing, but rather house houses/flats are built in the UK in general. We are a nation of carpet lovers.

Carpet is standard in UK homes apart from the kitchen and the bathroom.

Laminate / hard flooring is cold and uncomfortable in the winter.

Carpets don’t get dirty if you take your shoes off and vacuum once in a while.

Personally I think it's because no one takes their shoes off at the door anymore...

It depends tbh. We're in an upstairs flat, and carpet is a game changer for sound insulation and not being a nightmare for the people below us (especially as we're often up in the night), and likewise we get more sound insulation from them too. Our landlord asked us for our opinion when the original carpet was reaching end-of-life and he wanted to replace it, and we all agreed that whilst a nice, mock-wood laminate would be easier to clean, a good quality carpet and underlay is the much better shout for keeping sound levels good in the building between upstairs and downstairs.

On the other hand you get others that want the carpet for the heat properties.

I used to work for a carpet cleaning company and it's not overly expensive to get the carpets cleaned at the start or end of a tenancy (just don't let them talk you into all the extras unless you need a flea treatment - they're almost always not actually extras) 

I agree I like some carpet, but not everywhere. Most silly thing what I seen even in new builds, through front door straight in the living room on the carpet. Wth. Architects should be sacked who design houses like that.

I don’t want to live in a house with hard living room floors, so I wouldn’t expect to make my tenants either.

People like carpet so landlords put carpet in. It's no more complicated than that.

From a maintenance point of view, laminate might be easier to "keep clean" (i.e. remove visible stains in the short term) but I'd it's repeatedly allowed to get wet from mopping, spills or outdoor shoes being brought inside in a wet day, then it begins to warp and lift and looks dreadful. Easier and quicker to replace a carpet or even just run a Rug Doctor over it rather than replace the full room of laminate, which feels particularly wasteful when a while room would be replaced for the sake of a damaged section of laminate.

And yes, I appreciate that there is waste work carpet too, and you'd need to replace the whole room for a damaged section, but my experience is that carpets are far more robust and recoverable than laminate flooring.

Most rental properties are from the owners previous occupation and most homeowners prefer carpets and they look after them.

Talents don’t, and Wood flooring is quite expensive. Therefore, a cheap carpet is the way to go.

Unless of course your rental is trying to retract really the best tenants then wood flooring into the way to go

I personally prefer hard floors everywhere, even in bedrooms.

However I know I’m in a minority, people in the UK bloody love carpets, it’s not a landlord thing.

I am a landlord and have the carpets professionally cleaned every year, people are so messy though and they do get kinda gross!

Easy way to make a deduction lmao.

But seriously, as a tenant I completely agree. If and when I own my own place, first thing I'll do is rip out the carpet and put down laminate.

I suppose it is easier to care for than laminate, which can bubble if wetted. Tile can also be nasty to stand on for long periods.