Rented normally, it costs you £136 a month. That is £1,627 a year, every year you hold it.

Will it pay?Calculator

You top up £136 a month — the mortgage takes 60p of every pound of rent

Borrowing £25,035 less would close that shortfall — which is £25,035 more cash at the start, on top of the deposit.

£813 mortgage

£616 running

£1,345 rent in£136 short

◧ market rent £1,345 · 46 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

£67,500 + refurb costs

And about £8,136 more over five years, because it loses £136 every month you hold it — before any repair. That already assumes the rent never falls.

£67,500 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£10,764, unseen

□ works not inspected

What would have to be true?The working

£30,000 off and it stops losing money

At the asking price you feed it £136 a month. At £166,602 the rent covers everything — leaving stamp duty of £9,162 at that price.

offer £166,602

asked £200,000

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

Is the price right?The deeds

Last sold for £195,000 in 2019

Nothing nearby is comparable, and it is asking about what it fetched in 2019.

□ this address’s own deeds, no comparable saleHM Land Registry Price Paid Data

Can we trust the rent?Rent evidence

Nearby lettings, but only by searching 1.5 km

We widened the search to find them, so these are not next-door comparisons.

+36 more

our bar: 10 within 500 m

what 20 nearby lettings ask£1,300–£1,695/mo

our own middle half£1,300–£1,392/mo

■ 46 lettings within 1.5 km□ searched wider than our barAdvertised rents, not signed tenancies

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £142,706 of the £150,000 loan

That £7,294 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.

£1,359 needed

more than the £1,293 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,293PRA-style test

How big is it, really?The plan

Measured off the plan, not by a surveyor 602 sq ft

The area comes off the plan, not a survey. Open for what that means.

□ area off the floorplan — not a survey

Is it a good location?Open the map

Stevenage, SG1 1AB

2 of 4 schools in this postcode area rated Good or Outstanding 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

£2,500 a year in charges for the building, owed even when nobody is living there

The contract the property is sold under sets these charges, and they can go up over the years.

2 problems found · 1 came back clear · 4 we could not check · 2 do not apply to this property

■ from the listinglisting last seen 13 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Every way loses money — Standard rental loses least, at £136 a month

Let it to the council: £1,932 a year less, but they keep paying when it is empty.

Standard rental−£136 · £78,264 in

Guaranteed council rent−£297 · £78,264 in

Housing-benefit rent−£502 · £78,264 in

Each row: money kept a month, then the cash it ties up. Not compared: Rent by the room (only 2 bedrooms) · 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)

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

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

−£14,250 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 26% in the price would leave nothing from a sale after selling costs, and you would still owe the lender any shortfall. That is the £78,264 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