Rented normally, it costs you £459 a month. That is £5,506 a year, every year you hold it.

Will it pay?Calculator

You top up £459 a month — the mortgage takes 84p of every pound of rent

Borrowing £84,701 less would close that shortfall — which is £84,701 more cash at the start, on top of the deposit.

£1,625 mortgage

£1,929 rent in£459 short

£175 of that is a guess — no service charge published.

□ service charge not published2 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

£139,507 + refurb costs

And about £27,528 more over five years, because it loses £459 every month you hold it — before any repair. That already assumes the rent never falls.

£139,507 to buy it

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

□ works not inspected

What would have to be true?The working

£110,000 off and it stops losing money

At the asking price you feed it £459 a month. At £286,995 the rent covers everything — leaving stamp duty of £18,700 at that price.

offer £286,995

asked £399,950

◧ 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 £399,950

£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

Too few nearby letting behind this rent

Read the rent as a floor to beat, not a target.

our bar: 10 within 500 m

what 18 nearby lettings ask£121–£1,750/mo

our own middle half£1,640–£2,269/mo

■ 1 letting within 1 km□ too thin to price onAdvertised rents, not signed tenancies

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £204,668 of the £299,963 loan

That £95,294 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 gap is £62,547. Lenders test the rent at 7.5% and need it to cover 145% of the payment.

£2,718 needed

more than the £1,855 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,855PRA-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

How big is it, really?The plan

The rooms are on the plan; the total is not

The plan is on file; the floor area is not.

□ no floor area published

Is it a good location?Open the map

Liverpool, L8 5RJ

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

You would need a licence from the council first

Letting without the council’s licence is an offence, and the fee is in no figure here.

3 problems found · 1 came back clear · 5 we could not check

■ from council licensing registerlisting last seen 02 Sep 2026

Which strategy wins?The ways to run it

Every way loses money — Standard rental loses least, at £459 a month

Let it to the council: £11,160 a year less, but they keep paying when it is empty.

Standard rental−£459 · £155,458 in

Rent by the room−£765 · £181,458 in

Short-stay let−£1,116 · £155,458 in

3 nearby short-lets within 5.5 km · low confidence

Guaranteed council rent−£1,389 · £155,458 in

Housing-benefit rent−£1,532 · £155,458 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

−£43,541 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 25% in the price would leave nothing from a sale after selling costs, and you would still owe the lender any shortfall. That is the £155,458 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