Rented normally, you'd make about £25 a month.

Will it pay?Calculator

£25 of every £1,181 is yours to keep, each month

You keep 2p of every pound of rent. The mortgage takes 62p.

£731 mortgage

£1,181 rent in£25 yours

◧ market rent £1,181 · 23 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

£60,484 + refurb costs

£15,496 of that never comes back — stamp duty, solicitor and lender fees.

£60,484 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£15,111, 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 £179,950 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 £125,305 of the £134,963 loan

That £9,657 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.

£1,223 needed

more than the £1,136 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,136PRA-style test

Who has to say yes?Council record

Wolverhampton council approves 65% — 48% on a cautious reading

A council-wide rate across 34 HMO decisions, not a forecast for this address.

65%

0%50%100%

never approvesalways approves

the band is the cautious reading of the same 34 decisions — as low as 48%

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

Is it a good location?Open the map

Bilston Wv14, WV14

1 of 3 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 · 1 came back clear · 6 we could not check

■ from the Article 4 maplisting last seen 14 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Rent by the room beats Standard rental by £76 a month

Rent by the room needs £26,000 more cash than the others.

Rent by the room+£101 · £101,595 in

Standard rental+£25 · £75,595 in

Short-stay let−£31 · £75,595 in

76 nearby short-lets within 20 km · low confidence

Housing-benefit rent−£312 · £75,595 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) · Guaranteed council rent (no scheme in this borough) · 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

−£4,619 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 £75,595 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