The costs of being a landlord in the UK have been revealed with landlords spending thousands of pounds every year on their properties.
The research from LV= General Insurance found that landlords are each spending an average of £3,134 on their properties which amounts to nearly £4.7 billion every year.
However, for many landlords, the spiralling costs and growing time involved in managing their rental properties has become so great that more than 600,000 of them are considering selling up.
With a raft of new regulations and fewer tax perks, it should come as no surprise that growing numbers of landlords are questioning whether the money and time involved is worth the reward.
In addition, there is an uncertain economic and political outlook to consider.
The costs a landlord will incur
Of the costs a landlord will incur include refurbishments and renovations, at £370, repairing or replacing a boiler, also £370, fixing structural damage costs £313, while decorating costs £265.
Landlords are also spending £203 every year on maintaining the garden.
The survey also found that 66% of landlords say that carpets is the item most likely to be damaged by a tenant, followed by walls, for 45% and white goods for 27% of landlords.
Landlords are also spending £322 every year repairing or replacing flooring, another £298 is being spent on white goods and the cleaning costs when a tenancy comes to end amounts to £178.
Also, landlords spend on average £149 each on removing items that are left behind by their tenant.
The firm's managing director, Heather Smith, said: "Being a landlord is not without challenges and it's clear many feel the strain of regulatory and tax changes.
"Finding the right tenant is crucial and though most rarely experience tenant disputes, it's clear that when they do the disputes are potentially costly and challenging."
UK's highest rental yield areas revealed
Meanwhile, the UK's areas with the highest rental yields have been revealed from a lettings platform with those areas close to a university delivering the BTL rental yields.
The firm says it has analysed the postcodes for a year's rent divided by the area’s average price for property to calculate the yields.
The firm says that the number one spot is taken by Bradford’s BD1 postcode where landlords can enjoy yields of 10.2%.
The next best postcode is Sunderland's SR1 with yields of 9.4% and Liverpool's L7 postcode with yields of 9.3%.
A spokesman for the platform said: "For a safe investment, these are the places to look for when buying. It's no coincidence that postcodes with high rental yields are found close to a university campus."
