[quote Tar19891]@Chestofdraws I pay tenants insurance already. I appreciate that I don’t have to pay for cost of repairs but TBH they’re not 4.2k per year are they?[/quote]
I'm a landlord. Have been for 30 odd years with a number of houses. I obviously keep very detailed records of expenses for tax purposes. My average cost per house, per year for maintenance is £3500. Of course that has risen roughly in line with inflation over all those years - and some years one house will account for a large chunk of that, other years another will, and some years it works out roughly equal between them. But I have enough statistics to work this out pretty accurately - and that is what it comes to.
On top of that there is buildings insurance, landlord licence (if you're in a licensing area, gas and electricity servicing and certificates, maybe agents' fees, accountancy fees etc).
I would guess that the maintenance cost will be lower for flats - as you won't have to replace windows, roofs, sort out gardens, rendering or any of that stuff, but flats normally charge pretty substantial service charges to cover that sort of thing, so it probably works out about the same.
Plus of course any mortgage on top of that, and tax.
Of course if you were an owner occupier you wouldn't be paying for safety checks (although you probably should), or licences, or accountancy services, or tax, but you would still have the service charge and maintenance.