Rented normally, it costs you £2 a month. That is £29 a year, every year you hold it.

Will it pay?Calculator

You top up £2 a month — the mortgage takes 62p of every pound of rent

Borrowing £452 less would close that shortfall — which is £452 more cash at the start, on top of the deposit.

£955 mortgage

£537 running

£1,549 rent in£2 short

◧ market rent £1,549 · 89 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

£79,225 + refurb costs

And about £147 more over five years, because it loses £2 every month you hold it — before any repair. That already assumes the rent never falls.

£79,225 to buy it

deposit · stamp duty · solicitor · fees~£1,350, unseen

□ works not inspected

What would have to be true?

Break-even is within £5,000 of the asked price

It lands that close to the £235,000 asked — inside the step this card rounds to, and inside the confidence band on the rent it works back from. So the price asked is already about the price this rent carries, and there is no honest discount to print.

◧ worked back from the rent

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.

+79 more

our bar: 10 within 500 m

what 10 nearby lettings ask£1,400–£1,600/mo

our own middle half£1,449–£1,656/mo

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

What will the rent borrow?Lender test

The rent carries £164,350 of the £176,250 loan

That £11,900 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.

£1,597 needed

more than the £1,489 rent

stressed at 7.5%, 145% cover

◧ rent after empty weeks £1,489PRA-style test

How big is it, really?The plan

The plan and the advert, side by side 651 sq ft

Two figures for this house, and neither is a survey. Open for both.

□ area off the floorplan — not a survey

Is it a good location?Open the map

Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1UB

1 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 4Not assessed for this address

■ postcode area, not this address

What could kill thisThe checks

You would not own it outright — 80 years left, and buying more years has already got dearer

Nobody has priced those extra years here — you buy them from whoever owns the building.

2 problems found · 3 came back clear · 2 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 £2 a month

Standard rental also ties up the least cash, £80,575.

Standard rental−£2 · £80,575 in

Housing-benefit rent−£326 · £80,575 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) · Guaranteed council rent (no scheme in this borough) · Buy, improve & sell (pays out on sale)

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

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

−£3,067 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 23% in the price would leave nothing from a sale after selling costs, and you would still owe the lender any shortfall. That is the £80,575 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