Bradford Holiday Lets Net 6.4%, Beating Buy-to-Let

Holiday Let Doubles Buy-to-Let Gross Revenue in Bradford

Holiday letting generates roughly 125% more gross revenue than buy-to-let on a typical Bradford 3-bed house. The arithmetic is straightforward: a nightly rate of around £178 across 330 available nights at 40% occupancy produces far more income than the £907 a long-term tenant pays each month. Costs eat into that lead, but the gap is wide enough that buy-to-let only catches up under unfavourable assumptions.

Estimates for a typical 3-bedroom house. Figures are modelled from market data; not guaranteed outcomes.

Holiday let grosses roughly 125% more revenue per year, though operating costs differ significantly between the two strategies and narrow the net gap.

Break-even occupancy. Holiday let only outperforms buy-to-let on gross revenue if occupancy stays above 18%. The Bradford-wide average sits at 40%, more than double the break-even rate. That break-even figure is gross revenue equality only; after holiday let's higher operating costs are layered in, the actual after-cost break-even sits well above it.

Occupancy sensitivity. Occupancy is the single biggest variable in any holiday let projection. At 25% occupancy, gross revenue falls to £14,839, still above the buy-to-let figure but with the cost penalty applying. At 50% occupancy, revenue climbs to £29,511, and at a theoretical 100% it would hit £58,691. The dashboard lets you model your own occupancy assumption alongside specific suburb data.

Bradford's Suburban Balance: Affordability Drives Yields

Bradford's appeal is the rare combination of buy-in prices well below the UK median paired with rents that have held up. The national 3-bed median sits at £253,493; Bradford's is £175,057. That price discount is what lifts gross yields into double digits in the strongest suburbs, even before any holiday letting premium is layered on. Across 552 postcode areas in the wider district, the dispersion is wide.

Top-yielding postcode areas within the Bradford district (3-bed houses, buy-to-let basis).

Barkerend (BD3) leads on gross yield at 10.1%, driven by entry prices around £107,902 that sit well below the district median. Bradford City Centre (BD1) is the contrasting profile: higher rents around £1,169 on prices closer to £147,544, producing a 9.5% yield with a more central tenant pool. Inner-ring postcodes like Little Horton (BD5) and Heaton (BD9) fall between, while Keighley (BD21) extends the range out to the western edge of the district where pricing remains compressed.

For holiday letting specifically, the calculus shifts. The lowest-priced suburbs maximise gross yield on paper, but realised holiday let occupancy depends on visitor demand drivers (proximity to Saltaire, Haworth, central Bradford for Bradford 2025 City of Culture programming, and the Yorkshire Dales gateway). Suburbs with stronger long-term rental fundamentals are not always the strongest holiday let suburbs. These are postcode-level averages; the dashboard breaks each one down further by bedroom count and property type so you can model your specific property.

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

Operating Costs Trim Holiday Let's Lead in Bradford

Holiday letting carries substantially higher running costs than buy-to-let, and most of the gap shows up in five line items. The dashboard models a self-managed holiday let by default, so the cost stack below excludes professional agent fees; treat any agent appointment as an optional add-on rather than baseline.

• Airbnb host fees at 15.5% of gross revenue, working out to roughly £3,665 per year. Booking.com is similar; Vrbo, direct bookings, and own-website channels are cheaper.
• Specialist holiday let insurance: £1,068 per year, well above the £437 a buy-to-let policy costs.
• Higher maintenance and furnishing replacement: £3,754 for holiday letting versus £2,311 for a buy-to-let, reflecting guest turnover and faster wear on furnishings.
• Utilities paid by the host at around £1,980 per year (a buy-to-let tenant pays their own).
• Modelled council tax allowance of £2,012 (see caveat below).

Total holiday let operating costs come to £12,479 per year against £5,970 for buy-to-let. Net operating income works out to £11,163 for holiday letting versus £4,555 for buy-to-let, translating into net yields of 6.4% and 2.6% respectively. Holiday let still wins by a clear margin, but the lead is tighter than the gross-yield comparison suggests.

Council tax caveat. The buy-to-let tenant typically pays council tax themselves, so the modelled £2,012 line is more an allowance for void periods than a recurring landlord cost. Holiday lets meeting the availability test (140+ days available, 70+ let) usually transfer to non-domestic rates and frequently qualify for Small Business Rate Relief, which can reduce this bill to zero. If your specific property qualifies, real-world net yields on both strategies will run modestly above the modelled figures.

If you choose to hire a professional manager rather than self-managing the holiday let, add approximately £4,728 per year (around 20% of gross revenue). That narrows the comparison considerably; for many Bradford investors the self-managed route is what makes holiday letting clearly profitable.

Tax Implications for Bradford Investors

The Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) regime was abolished from April 2025, which removed the historic tax advantages holiday lets enjoyed over standard buy-to-let. Both are now taxed as property businesses on broadly the same footing. That makes the underlying revenue comparison above the central question, rather than tax planning.

For mortgaged investors, interest costs are no longer fully deductible against rental profit; relief is restricted to a 20% basic-rate tax credit. On a Bradford 3-bed at £175,057 with typical 75% leverage, that restriction can shift higher-rate taxpayers from comfortably profitable to marginal once mortgage rates are factored in. The dashboard's mortgage calculator pulls live Bank of England rates so you can model the post-finance position at your own income tax band.

Stamp duty applies on purchase, with an additional-property surcharge that lifts the rate notably above the owner-occupier scale. Rates and bands change frequently, so check current figures with your conveyancer before exchange rather than relying on historic numbers. On exit, capital gains tax on residential property runs at 18% for basic-rate taxpayers and 24% for higher-rate, with the annual exempt amount reduced in recent budgets.

Allowable expenses for both strategies include repairs, insurance, letting agent fees, ground rent on leasehold, and accountancy fees. Holiday lets retain the practical advantage that more of the running costs (utilities, cleaning, platform fees) are clearly business-incurred and therefore more straightforward to claim in full.

Bradford Yields Beat Yorkshire and UK Averages

Bradford prices in well below both regional and national medians while rents have held up, which is why headline yields run high. The comparison table makes the gap explicit.

Comparison of key investment metrics.

Bradford prints the cleanest "affordable yield" profile in the region: prices below the Yorkshire and Humber average and well under the UK figure, with rents that have not slipped proportionally. The trade-off is appreciation. Capital growth in the Bradford district has trailed southern English markets and even some northern peers over the past decade, so the case rests on cash flow rather than asset price acceleration. For a within-district comparison of property types, see Bradford Apartments Edge Out Houses on Yield Across Bedroom Counts. Investors weighing nearby Yorkshire markets can compare against Leeds Holiday Lets Net 3.5% After All Costs, Beating Buy-to-Let and Leeds Apartments Beat Houses on Yield at Every Bedroom Tier. For a more rural Yorkshire profile, see North Yorkshire: 2-Bed Apartments Outyield Houses for Holiday Lets.

For broader regional context including neighbouring metros and rural Yorkshire dales markets, see Yorkshire and The Humber rental market insights.

Investment Bottom Line

Bradford is a cash-flow market, not a capital-growth market, and the holiday let strategy roughly doubles the cash-flow advantage where the operator can sustain occupancy near or above the regional average. The 18% gross-revenue break-even is low enough that occupancy is rarely the binding constraint, though after-cost break-even is higher and depends on how tightly the operator manages running costs. Buy-to-let remains the lower-hassle option and the better fit for investors who want a hands-off Yorkshire portfolio holding rather than active hospitality income.

Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026. Methodology and source detail are available on the data sources page.

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.