Rented normally, it costs you £360 a month. That is £4,316 a year, every year you hold it.

Will it pay?Calculator

You top up £360 a month — the mortgage takes 62p of every pound of rent

Borrowing £66,403 less would close that shortfall — which is £66,403 more cash at the start, on top of the deposit.

£934 mortgage

£879 running

£1,512 rent in£360 short

◧ market rent £1,512 · 27 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

£77,549 + refurb costs

And about £21,581 more over five years, because it loses £360 every month you hold it — before any repair. That already assumes the rent never falls.

£77,549 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£15,951, unseen

□ works not inspected

What would have to be true?The working

£85,000 off and it stops losing money

At the asking price you feed it £360 a month. At £141,456 the rent covers everything — leaving stamp duty of £7,402 at that price.

offer £141,456

asked £229,995

◧ 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?Comparables

We can't tell — nothing nearby is alike enough

The dearest sold for 13.3× the cheapest, so the rent has to justify this price on its own.

you'd pay £229,995

£10,000

£13,100

£15,500

£35,600

£40,000

£85,000

£110,000

£115,000

£120,000

£120,000

£120,000

£133,000

£10k£71.5k£133k

£10,000 cheapest£133,000 dearest

12 completed sales, same property type, last 3 years

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

Can we trust the rent?Rent evidence

Nearby lettings back this rent

We hold too few nearby asking rents to cross-check this figure, so nothing here confirms it a second way.

+17 more

our bar: 10 within 500 m

our own middle half£1,419–£1,611/mo

■ 27 lettings within 1 km□ no nearby asks to cross-checkAdvertised rents, not signed tenancies

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £160,424 of the £172,496 loan

That £12,072 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.

£1,563 needed

more than the £1,454 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,454PRA-style test

Who has to say yes?Council record

Liverpool council approves 60% — 54% on a cautious reading

A council-wide rate across 237 HMO decisions, not a forecast for this address.

60%

0%50%100%

never approvesalways approves

the band is the cautious reading of the same 237 decisions — as low as 54%

■ Article 4 — planning permission requireddecision record held for this authority

Is it a good location?Open the map

Liverpool, L8 5RB

1 of 1 school 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

£5,189 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.

4 problems found · 3 came back clear · 2 we could not check

■ from the listinglisting last seen 15 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Short-stay let beats Standard rental by £526 a month

Let it to the council: £7,152 a year less, but they keep paying when it is empty.

Short-stay let+£166 · £93,500 in

7 nearby short-lets within 5.5 km · medium confidence

Standard rental−£360 · £93,500 in

Rent by the room−£486 · £119,500 in

Guaranteed council rent−£956 · £93,500 in

Housing-benefit rent−£1,097 · £93,500 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) · 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

−£30,628 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 £93,500 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