burnessie
Welcome to your one stop guide for everything you need to know about renting property out to go travelling, including tips and insights from my own experiences!
Considering a career break to travel but feel tied down to the property you fought hard to buy? This guide is for you.
I’ve just been through the process of renting property out to go travelling, and I wanted to write a practical guide about everything I learnt throughout the process to help anyone else who’s considering doing the same.
All the hidden and surprise costs, the legalities, the organisation behind it all – everything you need to know about renting property out to go travelling lies ahead.
By way of introduction, I’m Charlie, and at the age of 36-nearly-37-if-we-must I’m embarking on my third round the world trip. I’ve done two long trips in my twenties, but ten years on I have more to factor into my choice to travel long term again; namely my lovely flat.
Make no mistake: it is definitely easier to up and leave to go travelling when you don’t own a property. To be honest, upping and leaving your home, career and life in general is a lot easier in your twenties than later in life overall, but I’m proof that it can be done.
Owning a property is a wonderful milestone many people covet, but it doesn’t have to mean that you are definitively tied down once you do own your own place. With a bit of effort, you can enjoy the best of both worlds by renting property out to go travelling without feeling tied down.
Renting Property Out To Go Travelling Contents:
Step By Step Guide: Renting Property Out To Go Travelling
Renting property out to go travelling can seem daunting, but breaking it down into manageable steps makes it easier to navigate.
I didn’t buy my place with the intention of becoming a landlord temporarily whilst I lived out of a backpack, but it was impossible to pay my mortgage whilst also financially supporting myself to travel long term.
I want to add that the rental of my property does not fund my travels in any way; my travels are funded from savings. I did not rent my property out to take advantage of the market; I did it so I could enjoy the freedom of a career break for a while.
My goal was to break even on the property, with any small amount over going towards the maintenance of the property, to sort any issues that may occur during the rental period.
Step 1: Consent To Let
The first thing to do when deciding to rent your property out to go travelling is to check with your mortgage provider if you need to change the type of mortgage to buy to let or simply get a Consent To Let.
I was lucky that I could get a Consent To Let for my mortgage, which for a £120 annual fee means I can rent my property out temporarily for a period of time. Most mortgage providers will offer this as long as you are intending on returning to live in your property – say, after returning from a year of backpacking – though there are some limitations.
Generally speaking the main two parameters are that you need to have owned your property and lived in it yourself for at least 6 months, and you can’t have bought your property under the Help To Buy scheme.
You may not have to seek Consent To Let permission if you are renting your property out for 90 days or less.
Step 2: Check If You Live In A Selective Licensing Area
This one was the biggest surprise to me – I had never heard of Selective Licensing. You can read more about it here, but essentially you may need to pay the council a pretty hefty one off fee to obtain the legal right to rent out your property.
For Lewisham, the cost is £640, which felt like a massive kick in the teeth until I found out that neighbouring Southwark and Lambeth councils charge £900! Either way, it was a huge cost that I had no idea about until I spoke to the estate agents. There’s no way around it, but this cost should go straight into your ‘one off costs’ column to define how much you need to rent your place out to break even.
Step 3: Fix Anything Needed Around The Property
Technically this can come after you contact the estate agents, but the likelihood is you will be planning on renting your property out to travel a good while before actually doing so, and I highly recommend getting organised as far in advance as possible. Those final weeks before you leave will be hectic.
Anything that needs fixing or touching up around your property is very easy to just put off and put up with when you’re the one living there, but these things will need to be sorted for a tenant, so best to get ahead of it.
Step 4: Contact Estate Agents
Around 2.5 months prior to moving out is the right time to contact your local estate agents. They like to advertise places a couple of months prior to the move in date, though my place went on the market a little under this, and it wasn’t an issue.
Get at least two different estate agents to come round. They may have different valuations and are likely to have different letting and management rates. Before deciding who to go with, you’ll need to do a lot of maths to work out the costs and ensure you’re able to break even. You can of course do estimates prior to this point if you gauge the approximate rental of other similar properties in your area, but the take home will be affected by the estate agents’ percentage fees, as well as other costs you may not have considered (continued below).
Step 5: Decide What Management Level You Require
Estate agents will usually offer three different levels of management:
Let Only: they do all the marketing, conduct viewings, find the tenant and do all the set up that comes with that – reference checks, tenancy agreements etc. You collect the rent and deal with any issues that arise directly with the tenant.
Rent Collection: all the above but they also collect the monthly rent. You will deal with any maintenance issues and liaise directly with the tenant.
Full Management: all of the above and full day to day management of the property by a dedicated property manager. You can sit back on that beach and bask in your lack of responsibility.
Personally, I considered managing the property myself to save on fees after panicking I may not be able to break even, but after considering the fact that there would be times I would be completely out of touch (i.e. trekking Machu Picchu) and not wanting to put that responsibility on anyone else, I opted for full management for ease.
Step 6: Get All Required Certificates In Order
More surprise costs I wasn’t aware of – but ones that make total sense – are certain mandatory certifications that prove your home is fit for renting to tenants:
Gas Safety Certificate: £90 annually including a service, £55 without (approx).
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): £90, lasts for 10 years.
Electrical Installation Condition Report (EIC): £197, lasts for 5 years.
Step 7: Book Storage
Unless you have family and friends willing to take in all your crap, or you’re selling literally every book and piece of clothing you own, you will need storage for your time away. I opted to rent out my property furnished, but I still needed a storage unit for all of my stuff.
Storage can get spenny, especially if you’re based in London, so shop around. Even the same company in slightly different locations have drastically differing prices.
Step 8: Time To Move Out
Book your man with a van, rope pals in for a packing party and get ready to get sentimental. Everything you’ve worked towards is just around the corner – it’s time to move out and get on that plane!
Costs To Consider When Renting Property Out To Go Travelling
How to work out how much your property needs to be rented out at in order to break even isn’t easy. It’s also a little out of your control – the market will naturally dictate how much your property will be rented out for per month.
It’s hard to find all the information and a checklist for this, so I wanted to share all the hidden costs and breakdown of this, as I know I would’ve found this helpful!
Costs that need to come out of the monthly rent:
- Mortgage repayments
- Lettings and management fees
- Landlord’s home insurance
- Contents insurance (if property is furnished)
- Storage
- One off costs divided by number of months you will be renting your property out for
- Tax
One Off Costs:
- Selective Licensing (lasts 5 years – not applicable to everyone, depends on local authority)
- Consent To Let (annual)
- Buildings Insurance (annual)
- EIC: Electrical Installation Condition Report (lasts 5 years)
- EPC: Energy Performance Certificate (lasts 10 years)
- Gas Safety Certificate (annual)
- Tenancy Agreement (once per tenancy)
- Condition Report (once per tenancy)
- Professional Clean (one off at start of renting property out)
- Post Redirection (annual)
I took the total of the one off costs, divided them by the number of months I was planning to rent my property out, and used that as a monthly cost that needed to be covered by the rent in order to break even across the board.
Tax On A Rental Property
This one was tricky to work out. Thankfully, one of my best friend’s is an accountant and all round total legend, so she very kindly (and patiently) took me through working this out.
You need to pay tax on any profit you make from renting out your property in the tax year. There are certain deductibles or allowances which are exempt, for example:
- Interest paid on your mortgage
- Lettings and management fees
- Selective licensing
- Tenancy agreement fees
- Condition Report
- Insurance
Please note this is not an exhaustive list.
Add up the estimate for these and take away from your total rent income. If the amount sits below the personal allowance threshold and you are not earning any money in the tax year you are travelling, you won’t need to pay any tax. If it does, you will. Either way you will need to fill out a tax return at the appropriate time.
If you are earning at all in any part of the tax year that your property is also being rented out, bear in mind which tax band any profit will come under and put this money aside for the time of your tax return.
Final Thoughts On Renting Property Out To Go Travelling
It’s a lot to take in, I know. I found it very overwhelming to deal with, especially by myself, and even more so when it wasn’t clear if I would break even on renting my place out. Luckily I was able to do so in the end.
As I said at the beginning, it is much easier to up and leave to go travelling when you don’t own a property, but it is so wonderful to know you have a home that you love to come back to. I know a lot of people don’t like the idea of someone else in their home, but to me I cared way more about not travelling long term again than having someone call my beloved flat their own for a while.
It does take a lot of organisation and time to sort, and it’s not the cheapest of processes, but don’t let it be the reason you don’t take that longed for career break. Just because you’re in a different stage of your life doesn’t mean it’s impossible to leave that life for a bit to go travelling.
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Written February 2025.
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