If it feels like being a landlord has become a lot more expensive in recent years, you’re not imagining it. New figures show that landlord expenses are growing much faster than rental income.
According to official 2026 stats from HMRC, the UK’s 2.88 million unincorporated landlords declared a total of £34.75bn in allowable expenses in 2024/2025.
The same report shows that over the last five years, landlord expenses have grown by 56%, while rental income has grown by just 26%.
In other words, expenses have risen more than twice as fast as rental income. So, if you’re feeling the pinch, this could be why.
In this article, we’ll explain what’s driving the cost of landlord expenses up and provide tips for keeping your costs under control.
Why Are Landlord Expenses Rising in 2026?
Landlords aren’t facing rising costs in just one area; expenses are growing in several different areas at once, putting growing pressure on the overall cost of running a property portfolio.
Higher Buy-to-Let Mortgage and Borrowing Costs
According to the latest figures from HMRC, residential finance costs are landlords’ biggest expense, representing 37% of all expenses declared by unincorporated landlords in 2024/2025. As landlords refinance from older, cheaper fixed-rate mortgages, many have had to move from cheap fixed-rate mortgages to significantly higher rates.
Rising Property Maintenance and Repair Costs
Inflation has meant that landlords are also now paying more for building materials and routine property maintenance and repair services. While the increase may not be too noticeable if you only have one or two properties, if you have a whole portfolio to maintain, even small increases can add up quickly.
New Landlord Compliance and Registration Costs
The Renters’ Rights Act introduced stricter compliance requirements for the private rented sector, some of which come at an additional cost to landlords. Landlords may need to increase the amount they budget for compliance to cover new expenses like registering with the new 'register your rental property' service. The service begins rolling out in December 2026 and requires landlords of qualifying properties in England to pay an annual fee of £65 per property.
Energy Efficiency Upgrades and EPC Requirements
With the new minimum energy efficiency standard due from 1 October 2030, landlords with properties below EPC C or the equivalent standard should start planning and budgeting for improvements, subject to the applicable exemptions. Energy-saving improvements like insulation, a new heating system, or double or triple glazing could cost a considerable amount, and may need to be spread over several months or years.
With costs increasing on so many fronts, it’s more important than ever for landlords to have an accurate real-time view of their income and expenditure, and a clear understanding of where their money is going.
PaTMa’s Property Manager makes it easy to track your income and expenses and see how each property in your portfolio is performing.
6 Ways Landlords Can Reduce Property Expenses
While many of the price increases outlined above are outside your control, there are still steps you can take to cut costs and make sure you’re getting good value for money.
In this section, we’ll offer practical tips for avoiding unnecessary spending, reducing your costs, and keeping your portfolio expenses under control.
1. Review Your Buy-to-Let Mortgage Costs
For most landlords, property finance costs are their biggest expense, so any savings that can be made here can make a big difference to your portfolio’s profitability.
If you know your fixed deal is due to expire soon, don’t leave things until the last minute. If you start exploring your options a few months before your deal expires, you give yourself plenty of time to compare products.
When doing your research, make sure you don’t base your decision on the mortgage rate alone. Instead, compare the total mortgage cost, factoring in all relevant fees.
Sometimes, reducing your property’s loan-to-value can help you qualify for a better mortgage deal. It’s worth considering whether making an overpayment to reduce your balance would make good financial sense.
2. Reduce Repair Costs With Proactive Property Maintenance
Property repairs and maintenance can also be a drain on landlord finances, but being proactive can help you to keep these costs under control. Making time to look for and fix minor issues can prevent them from turning into much bigger and more expensive repair jobs later down the line.
Schedule regular inspections throughout the year, and use them as an opportunity to carry out seasonal maintenance tasks like clearing gutters and checking the condition of windows and doors to make sure small issues don’t go unnoticed.
After all, repairing a minor roof leak is much cheaper than repairing the ceiling and plasterwork once the water has found its way inside and caused extensive damage.
3. Compare Landlord Insurance, Services and Other Costs
When you’re managing a portfolio of properties, it’s easy to let recurring expenses roll over from one year to the next. But if you’re not comparing providers, you could miss opportunities to save or get better value for money.
Your mortgage isn’t the only expense worth shopping around for. From landlord insurance and letting agent fees to utilities, tradespeople, accountancy fees, and software subscriptions, regularly comparing prices can help you spot where you could be paying less.
4. Reduce Rental Void Periods
Void periods can be a landlord’s biggest headache, particularly if the property becomes vacant unexpectedly. For every month your property sits empty, you still have to pay expenses like mortgage payments and council tax, but with no rental income coming in, this can have a huge financial impact.
While it’s difficult to eliminate void periods, it pays to have a strategy in place to minimise their impact on your finances. Developing a good relationship with tenants by communicating with them regularly and being responsive and open to their queries and requests can help you to reduce tenant turnover and hold onto good tenants for longer.
When tenants do leave, marketing the property effectively with professional photography and a fair asking price will also help to fill the vacancy faster.
5. Claim All Allowable Landlord Expenses
Keeping costs down isn’t only about spending less. It’s also important to make sure that you’re taking advantage of any tax relief that you’re entitled to.
Understanding which of your costs count as allowable expenses can help to reduce your taxable rental profit and, in turn, your tax bill.
The most important allowable expenses to be aware of are:
-
Letting agent and management fees
-
Accountancy fees
-
Landlord insurance
-
Repairs and maintenance (but not improvements)
-
Utilities
-
Council tax
Keeping accurate, up-to-date records makes it much easier to ensure you’re claiming everything you’re entitled to. Landlord software like PaTMa can automate this task, giving you a real-time view of your expenditure and helping you ensure nothing goes unaccounted for.
6. Track Income and Expenses for Each Rental Property
Finally, if you own a portfolio of properties, it’s very important to track the income and expenditure for each one separately. This makes it much easier to compare performance and identify any patterns over time.
If one property is consistently costing you more than the others, you can investigate further to understand why. You may find a problem that needs addressing or consider whether it makes better financial sense to let it go.
This is where having the right tools will save you time and make your life much easier. PaTMa’s Property Manager software gives you a clear, up-to-date breakdown of your finances by individual property, making it easy for you to see exactly what each property is costing you and how it’s performing.
Of course, rising expenses are only one part of the picture. A property’s overall return isn’t determined by its running costs and rental income alone. Landlords may also benefit from capital growth if their properties increase in value over time. Therefore, even if your expenses have risen significantly, this doesn’t necessarily mean your portfolio is performing worse overall, make sure you’re always looking at the bigger picture.
That said, when costs are rising, keeping a close eye on expenses can help to protect your portfolio’s profitability. The key is to cut costs, not corners. Saving money should never come at the expense of your tenants, nor should it mean putting off essential maintenance or neglecting your compliance responsibilities. Doing so could easily end up costing you much more in the long run.
Instead, focus on managing the expenses you already have more proactively and looking for sensible opportunities to save. Sometimes, the savings may look small on a micro level, but when you apply them across your whole portfolio, suddenly they’re much more significant.
Track Rental Property Expenses With PaTMa Property Manager
When you’re managing several properties, keeping track of exactly where your money is going quickly becomes complicated. PaTMa’s Property Manager software makes managing your portfolio’s finances simple. It automates repetitive bookkeeping tasks and provides a top-level view of your overall portfolio’s performance as well as a breakdown of how each property is performing.
This makes it easier to spot problems and see where the money is going, enabling you to make more informed business decisions.
PaTMa is user-friendly, intuitive, and bursting with useful tools to make managing your portfolio and finances simpler. Book a free online demo or start your free trial today to discover how PaTMa’s Property Manager can help you gain a clearer picture of your portfolio’s finances.
