A growing proportion of homes to let are being listed with ‘bills included’.
There’s a striking divide between regions – and it’s not simply north v south.
Nationally, bills-included properties remain a minority proposition, accounting for 14.9% of rental listings across Britain.
London and the South East represent 23.9% and 13.2% respectively of all bills-included properties identified.
In the North East, 34.4% of rental listings are advertised as bills-included, meaning the model features in more than one in three properties.
At the other end of the scale, just 8.6% of listings in Scotland are advertised on the same basis.
Bills-inclusive arrangements are particularly familiar in parts of the student rental market, where tenants can be attracted by the simplicity of having utilities bundled into one monthly payment.
The model is also increasingly used as a perk in build-to-rent developments, where landlords and developers compete for tenants by offering greater convenience and an all-in-one living experience.
Sim Sekhon of LegalforLandlords, which conducted the research, says: “Bills-included renting clearly isn’t a single national trend. In the North East, it accounts for more than a third of rental listings, while in Scotland it is less than one in ten. That’s a substantial difference in how landlords are approaching the rental proposition.
“There are also parts of the market where including bills has become a much more established part of the offer. Student accommodation has long used the simplicity of bills-inclusive renting as an attraction, while build-to-rent operators can use it alongside other perks to make their developments stand out to prospective tenants.
“For tenants, having bills included can make budgeting simpler and give greater certainty over monthly outgoings. For landlords, it is a very different proposition because they take on responsibility for costs that can fluctuate and consumption they cannot fully control.
“With the energy price cap rising again in October, the economics of that decision are becoming even more relevant. But there is no one-size-fits-all answer. What works for a student property or a build-to-rent development may look very different for a traditional private landlord.”
