Rented normally, you'd make about £2 a month.

Will it pay?Calculator

£2 of every £1,213 is yours to keep, each month

You keep under 1p of every pound of rent. The mortgage takes 65p.

£792 mortgage

£1,213 rent in£2 yours

◧ market rent £1,213 · 20 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

£65,525 + refurb costs

£16,775 of that never comes back — stamp duty, solicitor and lender fees.

£65,525 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£17,630, unseen

□ works not inspected

What would have to be true?

Nothing — it works at the asking price

The rent covers the mortgage, the running costs and the tax at the £195,000 asked, so there is no discount this card has to name. A lower price would be upside, not a condition.

◧ worked back from the rent

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £128,700 of the £146,250 loan

That £17,550 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 rent carries the whole loan. Lenders test the rent at 7.5% and need it to cover 145% of the payment.

£1,325 needed

more than the £1,166 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,166PRA-style test

Who has to say yes?Council record

Birmingham council decides

Named from the postcode, with no decision record under it. Check Birmingham council's pre-application advice before you commit to a room-let plan.

■ Article 4 — planning permission required◧ authority from the postcode□ no decision recordfrom the Article 4 map we hold

How big is it, really?The plan

The rooms are on the plan; the total is not

The plan is on file; the floor area is not.

□ no floor area published

Is it a good location?Open the map

No school rated Good or better in this postcode area

5 schools in this postcode area, none rated Good or better and flood risk checking… — open for the map, the schools and the rest.

Article 4Planning permission required to let by the room

■ postcode area, not this address

What could kill thisThe checks

You would need a licence from the council first

Letting without the council’s licence is an offence, and the fee is in no figure here.

3 problems found · 1 came back clear · 4 we could not check · 1 does not apply to this property

■ from council licensing registerlisting last seen 17 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Nothing here beats a plain let

Let it to the council: £1,404 a year less, but they keep paying when it is empty.

Standard rental+£2 · £83,155 in

Guaranteed council rent−£115 · £83,155 in

Rent by the room−£261 · £83,155 in

Housing-benefit rent−£364 · £83,155 in

Each row: money kept a month, then the cash it ties up. Not compared: Do it up, then remortgage (pays back at the remortgage) · Short-stay let (no local short-let data) · Buy, improve & sell (pays out on sale)

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

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

−£7,042 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 27% in the price would leave nothing from a sale after selling costs, and you would still owe the lender any shortfall. That is the £83,155 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