The Cost of Being a Landlord

By 2 min read • May 19, 2017

New research carried out by Kent Reliance has found that landlords are spending a third of their rental income on costs relating to their buy to let properties.

The survey data showed that landlords spend, on average, £3,632 per year on costs, excluding mortgage payments. The highest costs are in London, but Welsh landlords spend the most on property costs, typically around £10,000 per year.

*****Whoops! Looks like this is an old post that isn’t relevant any more :/ *****

*****Visit the blog home page for the most up to date news. *****

London is Most Expensive for Landlords

Running costs vary considerably in different London boroughs. Landlords with properties in Kensington and Chelsea pay more than £13k a year keeping their properties in good order whereas landlords with properties in Camden only spend £9k a year. Outside London, the costs are much lower, with homes in South Bucks relatively cheap to run at £5k a year.

However, as you might expect, properties in central London attract much higher rents, so the higher rental income offsets high running costs, so central London landlords are actually better off than South Bucks landlords.

Wales is Cheap for Landlords

The same applies to Welsh properties where, despite the low running costs, rental income is also low, so in Merthyr Tydfil, for example, running costs are a whopping 43% of rental income.

Running a rental property isn’t cheap. Letting agent fees are a considerable expense for landlords, but insurance, professional fees, and utilities are all expensive. There are also maintenance costs, which all add up, especially on older properties.

Landlords should always weigh up costs versus rental income before investing in a buy to let property.

Was this post useful?
0/600
Awesome!
Thanks so much for your feedback!
Got it!
Thanks for your feedback.
Share with friends:
Copied
Popular articles

Get the best of Landlord Insider
delivered to your inbox fortnightly

Sign up and we’ll send you our latest posts, tax tips, legal tips, software tips and compliance deadlines, everything you need to know every two weeks. Unsubscribe any time.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.