17.08.2026

£47 a day to sit empty

£47 a day to sit empty

twitter icon

A vacant rental property in the UK costs its landlord £1,135 on average.

Lost rent, council tax, insurance, utilities, all counted across a typical 21-day void.
At that rate, every day a property sits empty costs roughly £47. A £250 spend on a professional clean and proper listing photos only needs to remove 5 of those 21 days to pay for itself. A £500 refresh needs 11 days.The bar for that spend to be worth it is genuinely low.

 Against a 21-day average void and a £1,135 total cost, a modest refresh that saves even five or six days pays for itself. Build-to-rent operators already treat presentation this way. @Hamptons' own research puts the BTR rent premium at 10.6% for flats, up from 6.5% in 2016, built on design, shared amenities and certainty of service.

That is a presentation decision sitting inside an asset-management budget, not a marketing one.
 
A £3,000 kitchen gets seen once someone has already booked a viewing. £250 spent on listing photography is what decides whether that viewing gets booked at all.
 
I go through the full numbers in my first issue of The Stager Weekly: what a void actually costs, and how little it takes to make presentation pay for itself.
 
 

I help landlords, property investors, developers and homeowners transform their properties into market-ready homes that sell faster and for the best price. Through expert staging and styling, I…

Follow us for more articles and posts direct from professionals on      
Duty of Care, Inclusion Strategy

Impact over Intention - always.

I delivered a few (...5!) Sexual Harassment Prevention workshops for employees and managers for a social housing client…
Effective Leadership, Facilitation Training

The Difference Between Training That Lands... and...

We talk a lot about “raising awareness” through training. But awareness alone doesn’t change behaviour. The Ebbinghaus…

Just make sure your not missing anything....

Most business owners treat pensions and protection like a chore they can deal with next year.I have helped many people…

More Articles

Business Relief round table event @ The Shard, London -...

Are your clients truly preserving Business Relief after exit? With recent changes and the £2.5m allowance, many…
Family Economics, Demographic Economics

A Conversation I Have Every Week With Clients

If you retired tomorrow, would you be doing it with confidence or crossing your fingers? It's one of the most common…

Business Relief Seminar

This week I had the pleasure of co-hosting an event at the Shard in London with Sarah Skelton  and Raphaella Phelps at…

Would you like to promote an article ?

Post articles and opinions on Lancashire Professionals to attract new clients and referrals. Feature in newsletters.
Join for free today and upload your articles for new contacts to read and enquire further.