Our house isn't selling - should we rent it out?

[jacksonlamb]

Despite reducing our price (significant reduction), our house isn't selling. We are thinking about renting it out and renting a smaller house at our chosen location. Has anyone done this? What are the pitfalls? Our main concern is that while it's rented we would have to take it off the market so we are wondering about offering it for monthly airbnb instead - that would enable us to allow viewings between rentals. We really do want to sell! We are aware that we'd have to pay tax on the rental income but would be willing to take a bit of a financial hit.

You would really need to do your research as becoming a landlord is complex and could make your sale harder. Short term holiday lets are probably a better bet but the management is obviously more intensive.

what research have you done to establish the extent of the market for airBnB in your locale?

is it likely to take more than 9 months to sell the property after you move out? If yes then you'll face a small amount of CGT on it.

Renting out at the moment is an absolute nightmare, there are lots and lots of new regulations which mean it’s extremely costly and admin heavy and with the tax you would be making a financial loss and investing a lot of time and stress. New laws mean that tenants have so many rights and getting people out even to sell is very difficult: it’s really only suited to cooperates now (exactly what they wanted…)

Air bnb is different, I don’t know much about this side of things though so can’t advise

AirB&B will involve meeting fire safety requirements, not all of which you’ll probably be willing to spend money to meet and adapt the property for if the aim is only to let it that way for a matter of months. It also won’t necessarily be easy just to arrange viewings between guests - you’ll lose a lot of potential viewers if they want to view when you’ve already taken a booking, many people will want weekend breaks, which will also be when many viewers want to view.

You need to grill your agent for the feedback they’ve received and really identify why it isn’t selling. It’s no good kicking the can down the road, if there are clear reasons being given by viewers as to why they’re not interested which the agent is withholding. Even having dropped the price, is it actually now realistic for the local market / in line with recently sold properties?

I am not sure renting as an alternative to not crystallising losses on house purchases is a great alternative these days.

I agree with this.

If you really want to sell your home, you need to lower the price low enough to attract interest from potential buyers. You may have reduced it 10%, for example, but it was initially listed 25 or 30% over what the market is willing to pay, it still won't sell. I'm not saying that this is necessarily the case with your home but I have seen a lot of larger properties where this is the case and the reason why they are not selling.

Are you willing to post a link for feedback?

Thank you all for some helpful comments. We did accept an offer 2 months ago but the buyers pulled out due to job loss. We have had quite a few viewings but the problem is that most people looking in our area are downsizers and our house is 5 bed. It's completive with others in the area and the only feedback we get is that it is too big. The big houses do sell round here but they take a long long time. We are worried about the changes to rental legislation so will have a good look at local airbnb demand, possibly as a short term rental for people renovating their houses. Any other ideas are welcome - thank you!

What's your general market looking like, and how does your price compare to similar properties? We are selling and had an acceptable (below asking price, but fine offer within 4 weeks). When properties can't sell its almost always the price.

Can you afford the repayments on a 'buy to let' or commercial mortgage?

Can you afford to cover void periods, can you still pay the mortgage if your tenant simply stops paying the rent and it takes you months and months to get them out?

We're in a similar position but have decided against renting, it's actually less of a financial risk to just keep the property empty and on the market.

We also decided against Air BnB after seeing the state of a local bungalow running as an air bnb, they are currently having the whole place redecorated and new flooring throughout after only about 6 months. Plus we didn't fancy the cost of replacing all of our doors with fire doors, having to drill fire extinguishers up all over the place, replacing some of the furniture so it meets fire safety regulations, etc etc.

I saw this. If you don't meet the requirements you'll need to pay council tax at any enhanced rate applicable. I'd also advocate dropping the price to the level that the market will accept.

"To qualify as a FHL, a property must be based in the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), furnished and let on a commercial basis, and the following conditions need to be met: The property must be available for letting for 210 days a year. It must actually be let for 105 days a year (the let days test)"

Becoming a holiday cottage carries a lot of responsibility.

This is a useful resource for those thinking of air b and b'ing homes:

https://www.sykescottages.co.uk/letyourcottage/advice/article/holiday-let-rules-regulations

Indemnity insurance

Smoke alarms

Carbon monoxide alarms

Furniture ONLY with fire safe labels

"While you will pay council tax for your home, if your holiday property in England was available to let for short periods totaling 140 days or more in the last year (20 weeks), and was actually let for 70 days or more, it qualifies for business rates rather than council tax."

You'll have to pay business rates for energy. I'm currently stuck on those as my rental used to be an Air B and B, and I've paid 24-40% more than domestic customers in the last year.

https://www.sykescottages.co.uk/letyourcottage/advice/article/holiday-let-fire-regulations-and-guidance

Annual gas safety inspections and a gas safety certificate are a legal requirement

Do I need to change my door locks from a key type to a thumb turn lock?
The law requires emergency doors not to be so locked or fastened that they cannot be easily and immediately opened by any person in an emergency. The guidance has expanded on this: “exit doors, such as the front or back door, should always be easy to unlock and must not need a key to unlock them from the inside.”

Ctrl + F 30-minute

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/678a25129752f24aa1573571/Making_your_small_paying-guest-accommodation_safe_from_fire.pdf

In most instances, it should be possible to accept solid, conventional doors that are a good fit in their frames. This will typically comprise a 44mm thick door of solid timber or with a core comprising flaxboard or chipboard. However, hollow core and thin panel doors, and any plain (non-fire resisting) glazing within doors or frames, provide little fire resistance and will normally need to be replaced with new 30-minute fire-resisting doors.

I’m a landlord. Short term tenancies but last one 9 years. One property. It’s finally on the market.
I need to sell. It’s taken 11 months to get the tenants out. They’ve left the house very grubby and uncared for. No adherence to their tenancy agreement.

The Govt don’t want small time landlords, so they make life difficult. I’ll never be a landlord again.
My advice? Dont go there!

Haven’t read all the posts but any house will normally sell if the price is very good. Think it woukd be easier to sell if you reduce it again.

We are same (actually could be the same town!!) and have decided to leave it empty. It's difficult as it's now on for just 20k more than what we paid for it 4 years ago and we've spent 80k on it (not even thinking about the amount of tax). If we go any lower we won't be able to afford an onward purchase and looking at what has actually sold we would have to drop it another 100k to get it moving and tbh that not something I'm willing to accept just yet. It would earn a lot as a air b&b but the risk is too high. I would ride it out till september and then see. MN is not kind to 'overinflated' house prices etc so put your hard hat on.

I would be careful letting a bigger house out on Airbnb especially if it's in or near area that would have a lot of stags, hens or could be used as a party house. Some people can and will do damage. Then if your trying to sell a house you can't show it when guests are there. You also have to meet certain regulations and may lead yourself open to CGT when you sell the house.
With air bnb you could have one set of guests leave by 11 and the next guests can arrive at 3. You then have to change bedding, towels and clean the whole place before the next set of guests arrive. You could have several sets of guest within 2 weeks so you need several sets of decent bed linen and towels washed and ready for this. I have a friend letting out a small house on Airbnb and this is what's involved along with dealing with problems like heating not working ect.

Then renting a house out is not easy either. I heard of tennents not moving out of a house, leaving the place in bits and then having to spend several thousand to repair or replace things before the house can be put up for sale.

In your case I would get advice from your estate agent re your house. Remove personal items and remove clutter. Perhaps painting the walls a neutral colour can freshen up a room and make it look bigger. Get the boiler serviced as well. Let someone see that if they buy they house they won't have to spend a lot of money immediately on it. Get a very honest friend or family member to walk around your house and ask them what they notice and what improvements you can make. Sometimes a few pairs of fresh eyes can spot things you may not notice.
Putting up a few photos here of the rooms and we might be able to give you suggestions as well.

following with interest!

Renting a place out is a real nightmare nowadays, so don't do it if your heart isn't in it and you really want to sell.
If your house isn't selling it is likely to be to do with the local market and/or national economy, or the fact that it is priced higher than equivalent properties that are selling.
In your position I would reduce the price until the house sells, reminding yourselves that whatever you decide to buy instead will almost certainly be cheaper too.

Why on earth do you think prices will be better in September? It looks like the markets are now dropping and they won’t be going up again anytime soon.

A year from now and you and OP will be wishing you just dropped your price earlier and got a sale while you still could.

Again, lots of interesting and thought provoking comments - thanks all. In answer to some questions:
A house on the same road, very similar, has just sold for the same as our asking price. The buyers preferred the room layout on theirs to ours. We've decluttered, put all our junk into storage and a friend who is a house 'stager' has advised us how to present the house. I don't want to post a link as I like my privacy but I don't think there's much more we can do to improve the house and its presentation.
We're going to follow mumsnetters' advice and keep the house on the market for a few more months. We are averaging a viewing per week at the moment.
Looking through the rental T & Cs from a well known estate agent, the terms are very onerous -commission as to be paid even if the tenants stop paying. I'm going to look into airbnb a little more and have been scouring the airbnb forums. There are many pitfalls but I'm not shutting it down just yet.
I will report back! Thanks again everyone for your advice.

I think you've made the right decision to keep the house on the market at least for a few more months. You're getting regular viewings, the house is looking good and the alternatives to selling do not sound easy.

Have you thought about reducing the price to the next Rightmove banding down? That can make a difference to the number of people who see your property. If the next banding is not too far from the current listing it is worth considering.

Comments discuss landlord council tax grab, property, especially extra property is an open target for tax grabs now.

https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2025/08/warning-to-landlords-selling-up-dont-ask-too-much/

Again, thanks for your helpful comments. An almost identical house in the same road has sold for slightly more than our asking price so I think the pricing is OK. The forthcoming budget frenzy has meant that there are even fewer buyers out there so I think we just have to wait and see. If we don't sell by the spring I think we'll try to rent it out but will look into all aspects of this very very thoroughly.

"but will look into all aspects of this very very thoroughly."

Good move.

was following the helpful advice on here as was in the same position. In the end we changed agents after a house on our road sold within 2 weeks (and ours still hadn’t after 3 months). Having changed agents we sold within a week! I didn’t think it would make a big difference but if definitely has. So any advice to people who aren’t happy with their agent (and in hindsight there were a few red flags) change your agent!

Unfortunately, if your house hasn't sold in 6 months or so, maybe longer, the asking price isn't right. If it was, you would have sold some time ago. There must have been a reason why the other house was more attractive to the buyers. As you say, the upcoming budget has reduced the number of potential buyers.
You said that you really want to sell in your initial post. If this is the case, reduce by 10% and hope that this brings in new buyers. The other possible option is waiting until after the budget announcements when people will at least have some certainty about the tax rises but I'm not convinced that this will help personally.
There are so many pitfalls with renting a house out now so it's unlikely to be the best option for you.