The gross holiday let premium is 184% for a 3-bed house in Glasgow, but after Airbnb fees, insurance, maintenance, utilities and council tax the picture changes substantially. This article covers BOTH a 3-bed house and a 2-bed apartment, because the cost structures differ in important ways: apartments add service charges that houses do not pay, but their lower entry prices (about £125,000 versus about £179,000) reshape the after-cost return. With the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) tax regime abolished from April 2025, holiday lets and buy-to-let are now taxed equivalently, making this after-costs comparison more important than ever.
3-Bed House: Holiday Let Nets 21.3% After All Costs
Self-managed, the Glasgow 3-bed house produces a net yield of 21.3% as a holiday let against 7.8% as a buy-to-let. The table below shows every line that gets subtracted before that figure lands.
| Holiday let | Buy-to-let | |
|---|---|---|
| Property price | £179,000 | £179,000 |
| Gross revenue | £54,000 | £19,000 |
| Airbnb fees (15.5%) | £8,300 | — |
| Rental management | — | £1,800 |
| Insurance | £990 | £400 |
| Maintenance | £4,200 | £2,600 |
| Utilities | £2,000 | £240 |
| Council tax | £0 | £0 |
| Holiday let tax | — | — |
| Total costs | £16,000 | £5,000 |
| Net income | £38,000 | £14,000 |
| Net yield | 21.3% | 7.8% |
Note Airbnb fees are listed at 15.5%, which is the host-only commission Airbnb charges in the UK. Other channels charge differently: Vrbo runs around 5% and Booking.com around 15%, so a multi-channel host will see a blended rate close to the Airbnb figure rather than well below it.
Airbnb Fees and Utilities Eat the Largest Share of the House Premium
The single biggest line that separates the two columns is Airbnb fees of about £8,300, which the buy-to-let pays nothing for. Utilities are the next material gap: a holiday let host carries about £2,000 a year because guests pay no power or gas bills, where a buy-to-let tenant covers their own utilities and the landlord pays nothing. Insurance roughly doubles (about £400 to about £990) because specialist holiday let cover is required, and maintenance is higher (about £4,200 versus about £2,600) because the holiday let figure includes furnishing replacement.
Council tax sits at about £1,200 on both sides, but the burden falls differently. A buy-to-let tenant typically pays the council tax bill directly, so the landlord only carries it during void periods. A holiday let owner can apply for Small Business Rate Relief if the property is available to let for at least 140 days a year and let for at least 70, which often reduces the bill to zero. The table shows £0 in both columns because the typical net landlord cost is £0: buy-to-let tenants pay the bill directly, and holiday let operators who let for at least 70 days a year generally qualify for relief.
2-Bed Apartment: Lower Entry Price, Service Charge Reshapes the Math
A Glasgow 2-bed apartment lists at about £125,000, well below the about £179,000 for a 3-bed house. The cheaper entry pulls the yield calculation in the apartment's favour, but the service charge claws some of that back. Here is the full breakdown.
| Holiday let | Buy-to-let | |
|---|---|---|
| Property price | £125,000 | £125,000 |
| Gross revenue | £35,000 | £14,000 |
| Airbnb fees (15.5%) | £5,400 | — |
| Buy-to-let management | — | £1,300 |
| Insurance | £660 | £280 |
| Maintenance | £3,000 | £1,800 |
| Utilities | £1,400 | £140 |
| Council tax | — | — |
| Holiday let tax | — | — |
| Service charge | £1,400 | £1,400 |
| Total costs | £12,000 | £4,900 |
| Net income | £23,000 | £9,400 |
| Net yield | 18.3% | 7.5% |
The service charge sits in both columns because it is a property-level cost that applies regardless of rental strategy: leaseholders pay it whether the flat is let nightly, monthly or sitting empty. Most Glasgow tenement and modern apartment leaseholds carry an annual factor or service charge for stair cleaning, common-area lighting, building insurance and reserve fund contributions.
Apartments Win on Net Yield Despite the Service Charge
The apartment's lower entry price more than offsets the service charge, producing a net holiday let yield of 18.3% versus 21.3% for the house. On the buy-to-let side the comparison is 7.5% for the apartment against 7.8% for the house. The arithmetic is straightforward: the cheaper purchase price drops the denominator faster than the lower revenue and added service charge erode the numerator.
That said, yield is not the only consideration. Houses tend to produce more stable occupancy across both strategies, attract longer guest stays, and avoid the management overhead of dealing with a leasehold factor. Apartments win the yield contest in Glasgow, but investors who want the simpler ownership structure and broader guest mix often accept the lower yield in exchange. Glasgow's affordability across both property types means both routes remain viable, which is rarer than it sounds: in many UK markets, only one property type works at all.
Holiday Let Breaks Even at 25% Occupancy
The 3-bed house holiday let breaks even versus buy-to-let at 25% occupancy on a gross basis, well below the Glasgow market average of 71%. Treat the break-even as a floor, not a target: it is the occupancy at which holiday let gross revenue equals buy-to-let annual rent, before either side's costs are subtracted. After costs, the holiday let needs higher occupancy than that floor to truly outperform, but the wide gap between break-even and actual market occupancy gives Glasgow holiday lets a meaningful margin of safety. Cities where break-even sits at 50% or higher offer no such cushion.
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Hiring a Letting Agent Drops the House Net Yield to 15.3%
The tables above assume self-management, the realistic baseline for owners who live locally or are willing to handle bookings, cleaning coordination and guest messaging themselves. For a 3-bed house, hiring a full-service holiday let agent adds roughly £11,000 a year, which is around 20% of gross revenue. Total operating costs rise to about £26,000 and the net yield drops to 15.3%.
That is still well above the 7.8% buy-to-let yield, but the gap narrows noticeably. For investors who want passive income without the hands-on workload, the agent-managed holiday let still wins on net yield in Glasgow, but the margin shrinks to the point where the lower-effort buy-to-let alternative becomes more attractive on a risk-adjusted basis. Owner-operators capture the full premium; outsourcing it gives roughly half of that premium back to the agent.
Furnished Holiday Lettings Abolition Makes the Tax Treatment Equivalent
The Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime was abolished from April 2025, removing the previous advantages around capital allowances, mortgage interest deductibility and pension contributions. Holiday let and buy-to-let income are now taxed under the same property income rules. Mortgage interest gets a basic-rate (20%) tax credit rather than a full deduction, which significantly affects higher-rate taxpayers on either strategy.
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) also applies on purchase. Scotland's LBTT has an Additional Dwelling Supplement of 8% on second properties from December 2024. The amounts are non-trivial on a £179,000 house or about £125,000 apartment, and the calculation depends on your existing property holdings; check with your solicitor before committing. Glasgow's regulatory environment for holiday lets is also active: Scotland requires a short-term let licence (mandatory since Oct 2022). Licence fee varies by council. Edinburgh is a short-term let control area where secondary letting may also require planning permission for change of use. Edinburgh will introduce a visitor levy on paid overnight accommodation from 24 July 2026.
Glasgow's Yield Profile Beats UK Norms by a Wide Margin
The 10.5% buy-to-let gross yield in Glasgow sits well above the UK national median of 5.5% and the Scotland figure of 8.6%. This is the cash-flow story Glasgow has always told: relatively low entry prices (about £179,000 for a 3-bed house against a UK median of about £261,000) combined with rents that have held up reasonably well (about £1,600 a month for a 3-bed). The result is one of the few major UK markets where buy-to-let alone produces double-digit gross yields before any costs, and where after-cost net yields still clear thresholds most southern English cities cannot reach.
These are city-wide medians; individual Glasgow postcode districts differ. City Centre (G2) leads on yield at 12.2%, with West End/Finnieston (G3) and City Centre (G1) close behind. The dashboard breaks down every postcode district in Glasgow with its own price, rent and yield figures across all bedroom counts and both property types. Data reflects market conditions as of October 2026.
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For methodology details see the market score methodology and data sources. Glasgow Apartments Beat Houses on Buy-to-Let Yield covers a related Scottish market for comparison, and For the same after-costs question elsewhere in the UK, see After All Costs, Edinburgh's Holiday Let Premium Holds at 22.7%.
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.
Methodology and Assumptions
Defaults used in the figures above. All inputs are adjustable in the dashboard.
How available nights are determined
Available nights default to 330 per year, reflecting an active operator with minimal blocked time. Where local regulations cap whole-home short-term lets (for example London at 90 nights and Edinburgh under the city-wide control area), the cap is applied. In markets where short-term rental requires owner-occupancy or is otherwise prohibited for investment properties, available nights drop to zero.
How occupancy is measured
The percentage of available nights that get booked, drawn from market data. A property listed for 200 nights with 100 bookings shows 50% occupancy. Adjustable in the dashboard.
Long-term rental management default
Includes a 9% letting agent fee, the standard arrangement for UK buy-to-let investors who use a managing agent. Self-managed landlords can adjust this to zero in the dashboard.
Short-term rental management default
Set to self-managed (zero management fee) by default, the most common arrangement for individual investors. Hiring a professional manager typically costs around 20% of gross revenue and reduces net yield proportionally. Toggle in the dashboard.
How property tax is calculated
Council tax in the UK is typically paid by the tenant for long-term rentals, so it is excluded from buy-to-let costs. Holiday lets are usually assessed as business rates and may qualify for Small Business Rate Relief, often reducing this to zero.
Local regulations
Check local council and freeholder or management company rules before investing; these change frequently. The regulations summary in this article reflects the latest data we hold. Always verify the live position with the local council.
Sampling and data sources
Short-term rental yield figures reflect properties currently listed on short-term rental platforms. In high-tourism markets, listings tend to concentrate in central postcodes, which can pull city-median yields above what residential areas of the same city would achieve. Yields for any specific suburb may differ significantly from the city-wide median.
For metric definitions and broader methodology, see the About page.