Planning maintenance across a rental portfolio
Maintenance is not unpredictable. It is irregular, which is different, and irregular is manageable with a plan.
Landlords often treat maintenance as an unpredictable cost and budget nothing for it, on the reasoning that some years nothing goes wrong. That is true in the same way that a car needs no repairs in some years — the costs still arrive, and they arrive in a lump.
The components of a property have broadly predictable service lives, and knowing them converts an unpredictable cost into a scheduled one.
The predictable cycles
These are planning figures rather than rules, but they are close enough to be useful for budgeting across a portfolio.
- Boiler: 10 to 15 years, with an annual service
- Roof covering: 40 to 60 years, with periodic repairs to flashings and valleys
- Gutters and downpipes: 20 to 30 years, with cleaning every one to two years
- External decoration: 5 to 7 years
- Internal redecoration: 5 to 10 years, or at each change of tenancy for a well-presented let
- Kitchen: 15 to 20 years, with appliance replacement every 8 to 12
- Bathroom: 20 to 25 years, with re-sealing every few years
- Electrical installation: 25 to 30 years, verified by an EICR every 5 years
- Windows: 20 to 30 years for modern units
Why scheduling matters across a portfolio
A single property can absorb a boiler replacement without difficulty. A portfolio of ten properties where all ten boilers were installed in the same period will face ten replacements in the same few years, and that concentration is what causes problems.
The remedy is to stagger the work deliberately: replace components before failure at a planned point, spread across properties so that no year carries an unusual load. This costs slightly more in total, because some components are replaced before the end of their life, and it avoids the year in which everything fails at once.
Budgeting the annual figure
A planning figure of 1% of the portfolio's value per year is a reasonable starting point, held in a separate account rather than spent. Over a decade that covers the roof, the boiler, the redecoration and the bathrooms, which is what the actual spend consists of.
The mistake is to treat maintenance as a cost only when it arises. A landlord who has spent nothing for four years has not saved money — they have deferred a bill that is growing.
Common questions
- How much should I budget for property maintenance?
- A common planning figure is 1% of the property's value per year, averaged over a decade. That is higher than the actual spend in a good year, which is why an average is used — the roof, the boiler and the redecoration arrive together in bad years. Hold the money in a separate account rather than treating it as income.
- How often should a rental property be redecorated?
- Every five to ten years, and more often if the tenancy changes frequently, because a well-presented property lets faster and achieves more rent. Redecoration between tenancies is often the cheapest way to reduce void periods, since the property is empty anyway and the work can be done before marketing.