Rented normally, you'd make about £34 a month.

Will it pay?Calculator

£34 of every £1,646 is yours to keep, each month

You keep 2p of every pound of rent. The mortgage takes 64p.

£1,056 mortgage

£1,646 rent in£34 yours

◧ market rent £1,646 · 6 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

£88,050 + refurb costs

£23,050 of that never comes back — stamp duty, solicitor and lender fees.

£88,050 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£19,458, 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 £260,000 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

Is the price right?Comparables

Nothing nearby is comparable — but it is 7% over its 2021 price

The dearest sold for 1.9× the cheapest, so the rent has to justify this price on its own.

you'd pay £260,000

£192,000

£201,846

£220,000

£226,000

£230,000

£240,000

£243,000

£243,000

£252,500

£255,000

£280,000

£360,000

£192k£276k£360k

£192,000 cheapest£360,000 dearest

12 completed sales, same property type, last 3 years

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

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £174,642 of the £195,000 loan

That £20,358 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.

£1,767 needed

more than the £1,583 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,583PRA-style test

Who has to say yes?Council record

Middlesbrough council approves 64% — 39% on a cautious reading

A council-wide rate across 14 HMO decisions, not a forecast for this address.

64%

0%50%100%

never approvesalways approves

the band is the cautious reading of the same 14 decisions — as low as 39%

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

How big is it, really?The plan

Measured off the plan, not by a surveyor 1,141 sq ft

The advert and the survey disagree — open for both figures and the gap.

■ area measured on site

Is it a good location?Open the map

Middlesbrough, TS4 3BA

3 of 5 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

The council here has taken away the automatic right to rent this out by the room

You would have to apply for permission first, and the council can say no.

2 problems found · 2 came back clear · 5 we could not check

■ from the Article 4 maplisting last seen 15 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Short-stay let beats Standard rental by £527 a month

Let it to the council: £7,476 a year less, but they keep paying when it is empty.

Short-stay let+£561 · £107,508 in

3 nearby short-lets within 11.1 km · low confidence

Standard rental+£34 · £107,508 in

Rent by the room−£41 · £141,508 in

Guaranteed council rent−£589 · £107,508 in

Housing-benefit rent−£736 · £107,508 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

−£6,812 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 £107,508 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