Aberdeenshire Holiday Lets Net 4.1% After All Costs

The gross holiday let premium in Aberdeenshire is 10% for a 3-bed house, but after all costs the picture changes materially. This article works through the actual after-costs position for both a 3-bed house and a 2-bed apartment, because the cost structures differ in ways that surprise most first-time investors. Apartments carry a lower entry price but layer on service charges that houses never pay, so the headline yield gap can flip once every line item is on the page.

3-Bed House: Holiday Let Nets £7,277, Buy-to-Let Nets £9,912

The buy-to-let column wins on net yield for a 3-bed house in Aberdeenshire, despite the holiday let grossing more. The table below assumes self-management on the holiday let side (the dashboard default for short-term lets) and agent-managed on the buy-to-let side at around 11% of rent.

Buy-to-let lands at 5.5% net while holiday let comes in at 4.1% after every cost is accounted for. That outcome reflects Aberdeenshire's strong rental market relative to its modest holiday let occupancy of 32%, which means the buy-to-let denominator is unusually competitive.

What Eats the Holiday Let Premium

Three line items do most of the damage to the holiday let position. Airbnb fees take £2,805 off the top at the 15.5% host-only rate, and that figure is Airbnb-specific: Vrbo runs closer to 5% and Booking.com sits around 15%, so the channel mix matters. Insurance jumps from £404 for a standard buy-to-let landlord policy to £988 for a holiday let policy, because guest liability and unoccupied-period cover need to be underwritten differently. Utilities at £2,328 sit entirely on the holiday let owner because tenants pay their own bills under a buy-to-let lease.

Maintenance is the quieter line item that often gets understated. The holiday let figure of £3,582 includes furnishing replacement and a higher wear-and-tear allowance from constant turnover, while the buy-to-let figure of £2,562 reflects routine repairs only. Together with utilities, these costs explain why the holiday let column carries roughly £10,820 of operating costs versus £6,105 for the buy-to-let.

2-Bed Apartment: Service Charges Add a Whole New Line Item

The apartment table below uses the same self-managed holiday let, agent-managed buy-to-let setup, with service charges added to both columns because they are a property-level cost that applies regardless of letting strategy.

Service charges of £1,392 per year are the single biggest structural difference between the apartment and house tables. They cover building insurance, communal repairs, and reserve fund contributions, and they are payable whether the flat is let nightly, monthly, or sitting empty. Many investors who run the numbers on a house yield then assume an apartment will produce a similar result at a smaller entry price; the service charge line is where that assumption breaks down.

House vs Apartment: Entry Price Drops, Service Charges Bite

The apartment entry price of £116,099 sits well below the £179,166 for a 3-bed house, which is the obvious draw for investors with a tighter capital budget. On a buy-to-let basis the apartment delivers 4.7% net against 5.5% for the house, so the lower price tag does not automatically translate into a better return once the service charge is paid.

On the holiday let side the comparison is 2.7% for the apartment against 4.1% for the house. Apartments tend to attract shorter stays and lower nightly rates (£106 versus £170 for a house), so the gross revenue gap is wider than the price gap, and the service charge then chips away at what is left. The honest read is that property type matters less than location and management quality, and either option works as a buy-to-let in this market while the holiday let case is more marginal once costs are stacked up.

Holiday Let Only Breaks Even at 29% Occupancy

The 3-bed house holiday let needs 29% occupancy just to match what a standard buy-to-let would produce on a gross basis, and the Aberdeenshire market median sits at 32%. That is a floor, not a target. Below the floor, the holiday let underperforms a vanilla tenancy on revenue alone before any of the higher cost lines are even considered. Local seasonality matters here: castle-country and coastal postcodes can comfortably exceed the median during summer and Royal Deeside events, while inland farming postcodes will typically run well below it year-round.

These are county-level medians across 289 postcodes; individual postcode districts diverge significantly from the headline numbers. The dashboard shows postcode-level data for every bedroom count and property type, so you can see where the holiday let case actually stands up.

View Aberdeenshire in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Hiring an Agent Adds £3,981 and Drops Net Yield to 1.8%

The tables above assume self-management on the holiday let side, which is the realistic baseline for owners within driving distance who handle changeovers and guest messaging themselves. Once an agent is engaged for a 3-bed house, they typically take around 22% of gross revenue, which works out to roughly £3,981 per year in this market. That extra line item drags total costs to £14,801 and net yield to 1.8%.

For non-resident owners the maths can still work because an agent is the only practical way to keep occupancy near the 32% market median, and a poorly run self-managed listing tends to underperform an agent-managed one on bookings. Investors based in Aberdeen city or living in the postcode area itself usually find self-management is the better outcome, because the agent fee is a fixed percentage drag that the holiday let column cannot easily absorb at this market's nightly rates of £170.

Tax: FHL Abolished April 2025

The Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime was abolished from 6 April 2025, which removed the historical advantages holiday lets enjoyed over standard buy-to-let. Mortgage interest is now relieved at the basic rate only via tax credit for both letting strategies, capital allowances on furniture have stopped, and pension-contribution-eligible profits are no longer a feature. The financial comparison between holiday letting and buy-to-let now sits on operating economics rather than tax structure, which makes the kind of after-costs comparison in this article more important than ever.

Stamp duty in Scotland includes an Additional Dwelling Supplement on second properties, and transaction costs vary depending on price band and circumstances. Check the current bands with your solicitor before committing, because the supplement alone can move the all-in entry cost meaningfully for a buy-to-let purchase. Scotland also requires a short-term let licence (mandatory since October 2022) for any holiday let, with fees that vary by council; Aberdeenshire applies the licensing regime but is not a control area, so planning permission for change of use is not generally required outside Edinburgh.

Aberdeenshire's combination of a 32% occupancy median and £170 nightly rate puts it in a different category to high-tourism Highland or coastal markets, and the suburban-balance dynamic shows up clearly in the data: enough demand to support a holiday let where the location warrants it, but affordable enough that buy-to-let yields hold their own at 9.2% gross against the UK median of 5.7%. For investors prioritising cash flow from day one, the buy-to-let route is the lower-effort, higher-net-yield option in this county on the median property.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.