Rented normally, it costs you £327 a month. That is £3,919 a year, every year you hold it.

Will it pay?Calculator

You top up £327 a month — the mortgage takes 85p of every pound of rent

Borrowing £60,294 less would close that shortfall — which is £60,294 more cash at the start, on top of the deposit.

£2,433 mortgage

£2,850 rent in£327 short

◧ market rent £2,850 · 5 comps2 empty weeks a year assumed

What if I change my assumptions?The dials

At the asking price, 25% deposit, 6.50% charged

Change any of these 16 and every card on this page changes with it. The 6.50% is the 5.75% quoted plus a company premium.

◧ worked out from local rents

What will it cost me to buy?Breakdown

£243,805 + refurb costs

And about £19,596 more over five years, because it loses £327 every month you hold it — before any repair. That already assumes the rent never falls.

£243,805 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£1,500, unseen

□ works not inspected

What would have to be true?The working

£80,000 off and it stops losing money

At the asking price you feed it £327 a month. At £518,568 the rent covers everything — leaving LBTT of £66,692 at that price.

offer £518,568

asked £599,000

◧ worked back from the rent■ LBTT re-bandedrounded down to £5,000 — the rent it works back from is an estimate

Is the price right?Comparables

We can't tell — nothing nearby is alike enough

The dearest sold for 2.0× the cheapest, so the rent has to justify this price on its own.

you'd pay £599,000

£325,000

£355,000

£645,000

£645,444

£325k£485.2k£645.4k

£325,000 cheapest£645,444 dearest

4 completed sales, same property type, last 3 years

□ 4 sold nearby, not matched on sizeHM Land Registry Price Paid Data

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £302,387 of the £449,250 loan

That £146,863 is yours to find on top of the deposit. Tested at 125% instead of 145% — a company or a basic-rate taxpayer usually is — the gap is £98,481. Lenders test the rent at 7.5% and need it to cover 145% of the payment.

£4,071 needed

more than the £2,740 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £2,740PRA-style test

How big is it, really?The plan

The plan and the advert, side by side 2,153 sq ft

Two figures for this house, and neither is a survey. Open for both.

□ area off the floorplan — not a survey

Is it a good location?Open the map

Nearest stop up to 2 km away

Beyond a comfortable walk, and more than nine in ten listings we cover have one closer.

Article 4Not assessed for this address

■ postcode area, not this address■ nearest stop in our data□ kind of stop not recordedstraight-line distance, not the walk

What could kill thisThe checks

An energy rating of G is too low to rent out in England and Wales — check what Scotland allows

We do not know what rating a rented home has to reach here, only what raising it costs.

2 problems found · 2 came back clear · 3 we could not check · 2 do not apply to this property

■ from the listinglisting last seen 18 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Every way loses money — Standard rental loses least, at £327 a month

Let it to the council: £14,004 a year less, but they keep paying when it is empty.

Standard rental−£327 · £245,305 in

Rent by the room−£1,150 · £287,305 in

Guaranteed council rent−£1,494 · £245,305 in

Housing-benefit rent−£1,712 · £245,305 in

Short-stay let−£2,365 · £245,305 in

14 nearby short-lets within 5.5 km · low confidence

Each row: money kept a month, then the cash it ties up. Not compared: Do it up, then remortgage (pays back at the remortgage) · Buy, improve & sell (pays out on sale)

◧ 5 ways, one measureranked on money kept each month, at the asking price

What would you walk away with?The five-year sums

−£69,922 after five years on the cash you put in, before tax on the sale

Less than the same cash would have made in a savings account, after tax on the interest. The savings account’s capital is not at risk; the property’s is. A fall of about 23% in the price would leave nothing from a sale after selling costs, and you would still owe the lender any shortfall. That is the £245,305 you put in. The 5-year fix runs past this 5-year hold, so the rate reset comes after it.

◧ 2.0%/yr growth assumed