Hi everyone, I’m looking for some honest advice from landlords both in Manchester and generally across the UK.
I have a tenant who moved into my 2-bedroom terrace house in Burnage back in 2020. I have only increased the rent once, in 2023, and it is currently £900 per month. The house has a living room, kitchen, a small backyard, and a 3-meter extension used as a dining room.
With the current costs of maintenance and repairs, I am honestly not making much profit at £900. I checked Zoopla, which give a range of £1,500 (Low) to £1,650 (High) for my specific address.
• How reliable are these Zoopla estimates? Are they often exaggerated for the Manchester market in 2026?
• What is a fair increase? I want to be fair to my tenants, but I also need to cover my costs. Is jumping from £900 to £1,500 too high for a single increase, even if Zoopla says that’s the “low” market rate?
• Manchester landlords: If you have properties in M19/Burnage, what is a realistic rent for a 2-bed with an extension that won’t cause issues?
I want to avoid conflict, but I need the property to be sustainable. Any advice would be great. Thanks.
Don’t just look at the whole of Manchester-far too wide to give meaningful numbers. Look in your postcode (search on OR rightmove and Zoopla in your area for similar properties so you can show tenant)
Seems much too big an increase will be challenged will take 2 months + to get result (see Landlords face RRA tribunal delay chaos https://share.google/ItjhEIhIF9TQTxw9Z only a fifth get outcome within 10 weeks and that’s before RRA) and increase even if accepted by Tribunal won’t be backdated due to RRA
Check your tenants income from 2023 and see what their affordability is - if 1500 is more than 30% of gross they may struggle to afford and get into rent arrears - no good for anyone
Inflation is running at 3.3%, average wage inflation at 3.6% and you want to increase your rent by 67%. If you chose to rent well below market before that was what you accepted and tenants got a great deal. But increase of 67% won’t avoid conflict. It’s like a LL issuing a s21 on 30 april unexpectedly. Tenants will say you are effectively kicking them out.
consider selling the property now.
if you are not sure about this simple stuff you are going to be lost with the RRA and RRO’s and the wide ranging changes in legislation. It’s a literal minefield of legislation with punitive fines for inadvertent or minor errors now. If the tenant doesn’t pay you now in reality you can kiss your rent goodbye. Chasing debt is often a waste of time. Private rental is in its death throes
Thank you for the detailed warning about tribunal delays,I definitely want to avoid that “chaos.”
To answer your point about fairness and affordability: over the last two years, this tenant has consistently paid late by 20–22 days every month. I have had to use OpenRent’s Rent Collection service recently just to force payments on time. Because I have a mortgage and rising maintenance costs, I simply cannot afford to keep the rent at £900 while dealing with these payment delays.
I’ve decided not to go for the Zoopla estimate. Instead, I’m looking at a “fair” market range of £1,100–£1,200.
• The OpenRent calculator shows £1,260 as the average for my area.
• Similar houses on my street are currently listed for £1,100 to £1,200 .
• My house has a 3-meter extension, which adds more value than those standard terraces.
Do you, or others in the community, think a jump to £1,150 or £1,200 would still be seen as “unreasonable” by a tribunal, given it matches the local market exactly and accounts for the extra space?
I want to be fair, but the current situation is no longer sustainable for me as a landlord. Thanks again!
Thanks for the warning, Candid1. I am aware that the RRA has made things much stricter, which is why I’m taking my time to get the numbers and the process right. I’m aiming for a fair market rent of £1,100–£1,200 (which is still below some estimates) to try and keep things sustainable without triggering a legal battle.
all sorts of things affect the market rate- location condition size market demand/supply at the time. We have no idea whether people would pay more for your extra space.
Whether current tenants used to pay on time or not isn’t a factor tho
Is an increase to 1100 fair? We have no idea without seeing inside etc. The online estimates are averages
You could get estimates from local agents, from a floor plan and photos of inside etc.
Even better would be to let them come and see in person (when you inspect next?) and write you an ARLA valuation letter (this is what mortgage providers sometimes ask for) - may cost a small fee
If the late payment continues, consider s8 ground 11 eviction - tho this is discretionary sounds like you have a lot of evidence
Then market and get new tenants in who pay on time at whatever is the correct amount.. not sure why you are complaining about them being constantly late but want to be fair to them avoid confrontation and legal. If they’ve disrespected you so much already they won’t think twice about paying 48 quid to avoid many months of rent increase by going to the Tribunal
what you don’t want is to hike the rent so much that the T’s initial reaction is to head straight to a tribunal. We also don’t know your relationship with your T but the fact that you’ve kept the rent well BMV and consistently allowed rent to be paid late historically for over five years and didn’t evict via S21 while you had the chance indicates to the T at least that you might be a bit of a pushover.
This is therefore going to have to be handled carefully. I’d sit down with them and a fresh copy of an S13 and tell them squarely that you’re going to be raising the rent by £100 to £1,000 and that this is still BMV and great value.
That way, the T should know that you’re unlikely to even get a hearing let alone escalated to full tribunal even if they should want to chance their luck.
I wouldnt pay any attention to zoopla or open rent estimates, in my experience they are way out.
It is hard to argue that increasing rent in line with average wages is unfair so is what i would normally use if there havent been any improvements. Wages have increased by 16% over last 3 years which would take it to £1,040 per month. Its a big increase but not unreasonable but in future much better to make small increases annually.
I get what your saying as a suitable system for rent review ‘in the past’, but RRA requires rents not to exceed market rate, so the rate of wage inflation has nothing to do with anything, and would not even be considered as an acceptable justification by a tribunal.
Fortunately ONS publish data on private rent increases for Manchester , which could possibly be used instead at least as a guide/check for any expert market rent evaluation
This includes data for 2 bed properties and Average monthly rent for these in Manchester in March 2026 was 1212. Given this will have included flats and properties without gardens then if @MCR_Landlord ‘s property is in good condition and not in a bad location/area, an increase to 1100 may well be justifiable, but an increase to 1000 this time as @tatemono suggests might be better and less risk of tenants going to Tribunal by explaining still well under market rate and cheaper than anything else they’ll find with same space and facilities (and maybe then increase to 1100 or 1150 in a year’s time?). Only @MCR_Landlord can judge/guess the tenants’ reaction but if from previous income it looks like they can’t easily afford 1100 there’s little point in raising it to that.
The summaries of 1st tribunal rent cases also gets published which shows what sort of evidence the tribunal gets from LLs and tenants and how they reach a decision/what they allow for. Think they may come and inspect
I really value your advice on the professional valuation. Before I take any formal steps, I wanted to get the community’s opinion on my current plan.
My initial idea is to reach out to the tenant with a friendly message first. I want to be transparent and explain that my costs have increased significantly, specifically my Mortgage interest, Building Insurance, and the rising cost of Maintenance and repairs. At £900, the rent no longer covers these basic expenses.
I am thinking of proposing a new rent of £1,050 or £1,100. Since I already have Rent Collection active with OpenRent, and the tenant has recently started paying on time through this system, I’m hoping we can just update the amount within the platform once we agree.
My plan would be:
1. See if the tenant agrees to this informally via email first, explaining my costs.
2. If they agree, I will use the OpenRent system to update the rent and serve the formal Form 4A to make it legal.
3. If they don’t agree, I’ll have to consider if I need a professional ARLA valuation to move forward.
Fully agree you cant use wages to go above market rates but all indications in the thread indicate market rate is higher than the rent after allowing for wages so generally tenants dont object if you say something along lines that market rates are circa £1200pm but you are limiting increase to increases in wages since last review to circa £1040pm for a long term tenant
Id cerainly agree informal discussion is best outling why a substantial increase is necessary.
If they dont agree then depends on your position but i dont see much point in providing long term housing way below market rents at current interest rates and regulations, so id just serve the rent increase notice rather than go to expense of a valuation if it is clear from rightmove comparisons that rent increase is reasonable. Thete is a limit on the steps you can take to make it both affordable for a tenant and viable to continue renting.
Not sure how friendly they will think any proposal for a rent increase would be. Your costs aren’t a legit reason for an increase however in eyes of Tribunal. I’d put it as a firm proposal and don’t offer them a choice- you can always negotiate down to 1050 later if they want to speak or propose a lower figure
May be better face to face as less formal etc. If they’ve been struggling to pay the lower amount on time and this is going to cause a huge problem for them you’ll find out straight away. They also won’t be able to consult other legalistic tenants about what their rights are/what to do so.
Whether by email or not, perhaps start by thanking them for something if you can eg
"Based on the regular inspections you are taking good care of the property and I appreciate that you are now paying on time.
You’ll know that costs have been increasing for us all, including my mortgage costs, maintenance and insurance costs. Whilst I have not increased the rent for you since 2023 unfortunately I can no longer afford to keep the property at the current rent.
I’m writing to let you know I intend formally proposing a rent increase to 1100pcm from (august? Sept?). This will still be well below the market rate as you can find out by looking on rightmove or elsewhere for similar properties. I’m not charging you the full market rent at this time because you are good tenants and I understand any rent increase may be unwelcome. However the alternative would be that I’d have to sell up.
I’d be happy to speak and discuss with you otherwise please can you let me know whether you agree to the increase, by (date)
Best"
-the implication is if you can’t get an increase you have to sell and so (they will assume) they would likely have to leave
-it leaves open the door for them to propose a lower increase or a later one or to discuss with you - they might propose 1000 and you split the difference so they then feel they’ve been listened to
-it asks for a reply by a specific date so you aren’t left hanging (after that you could call or maybe discuss at next inspection visit)
It is late now but here is what I tend to do. Increase every year progressively and keep below market rate but track it. If you give any breaks jump becomes too big and tenants might not appreciate the break and mourn about bigger jump. Also yearly increases easier to adjust as opposed to big jumps.
Thank you for that advice, it makes perfect sense. I realise now that keeping the rent frozen for so long is what makes any future increase feel like a massive jump to the tenant, even if the final number is still well below market value. Small, progressive yearly updates are definitely a better strategy to track inflation and costs.
Based on what you and the community have suggested, I’m not planning a crazy, massive jump to full market value. Instead, I am looking at a very reasonable 16% to 17% increase.
Even with the property’s 3-meter extension, this percentage keep the rent sitting firmly at the lowest end of the market for my postcode. I feel this is a very fair compromise that helps me cover my rising mortgage interest, building insurance, and maintenance expenses, while still giving my long term tenant a massive discount compared to the rest of the Manchester market.
Thanks again for the perspective, it helped me find the right balance!
