This is the flagship, and it is what most of our investors end up buying. The important thing to understand is that the lease is with the provider, not with a tenant. You are contracting with an organisation. There are no tenancy agreements in your name, no evictions to deal with, and nobody to chase.

The provider handles tenant management, internal maintenance, utilities and council tax. You keep the structure — the roof and the windows — and the boiler. Boiler cover at around £15–£20 a month takes most of the sting out of the one item likely to go wrong.

In Liverpool this typically runs at around 8–10% net; in Manchester, where the same rent buys a much more expensive house, more like 6–8%. A typical Liverpool two-bedroom is around £100,000 with rent of £850–£950 a month, and all in — deposit, stamp duty, legals, light refurbishment — you would need somewhere in the region of £40,000–£45,000 with a mortgage.

We work with several providers in each region rather than relying on one. In the North West that means local, council-level organisations that cover a couple of councils, know them properly and can be picked up the phone to — we speak to the owners most weeks. In the North East we work with a number of providers operating across Tyneside, Sunderland, Newcastle, Middlesbrough and County Durham, including both local operators and one of the larger national ones.

That matters for a practical reason. If one provider will not take a particular property, or their rate is not good enough, we go to the next — and if a provider ever stopped trading, your lease moves rather than your income stopping. Having only one relationship in a region is a single point of failure, and we do not run it that way.

It also means we choose the contract, not just the provider. Providers run several different contracts side by side and they are not equivalent — the type of contract decides who lives in your property, how hard it is used, and how exposed it is to a change in government policy. We will tell you exactly which contract a property is going on before you commit to anything.

We do not publish any provider's name or the terms of an individual lease. We introduce the provider and their terms to you directly once we understand what you are buying.

Funding a social housing purchase. The route most of our overseas and hands-off investors use is interest-only finance at around a 25% deposit and roughly 8% interest. On a £100,000 purchase that is a £25,000 deposit and about £6,000 a year of interest, against a lease rent that is paid whether or not the property is occupied. We will run the figures properly for the specific property in the deal pack.

Who is responsible for what. This is not a full repairing and insuring lease — an FRI lease is a commercial arrangement and this is not one, which is the single most common misunderstanding we have to correct. The provider covers tenant management, internal maintenance, utilities, council tax and tenant damage. You insure the building and keep the structure — roof and windows — plus the boiler. At the end of the term the property comes back to you in fair condition allowing for wear and tear.

The contract types, and which we use

"Social housing" is not one thing. Providers run several different contracts alongside each other, and which one your property goes on decides who lives in it, how hard it gets used and how exposed the income is to a change in government policy. Here is the honest version of all four.

Emergency and temporary family accommodation

What we mostly source

Families who have been made homeless and are waiting for longer-term housing.

This is the bulk of what we source, in both regions. It is lower-intensity use, families tend to look after the house, and of all the contract types it has the broadest and most durable political support. It also leaves you with the best exit, because the property is an ordinary family home that has been lived in as one.

Prison-leaver resettlement

Selectively

People leaving custody, placed in supported resettlement accommodation.

We will look at these where the property suits it — flats in particular work well for this contract, and they are stock the family contracts cannot usually take. It is more intensive than family accommodation and we would talk you through what that means before you committed to one.

Supported housing

Selectively

Care leavers, people in recovery, and vulnerable adults needing support on site.

Strong income, and the provider manages the residents and the bills. The use is heavier than family accommodation and the exit tends to be to another investor rather than to an owner-occupier, so it suits an investor who wants income rather than growth.

Asylum accommodation

We don't source these

Asylum seekers, under large national Home Office contracts.

We do not source these. The judgement is commercial rather than political: these are the most exposed to a change of government policy, the contracts are large and national so there is no relationship to lean on, and the properties tend to sit in weaker locations with poorer resale.

Where the money actually goes

This is the comparison that makes the case better than any yield figure. It is the cost of running a professionally let HMO against the cost of running the same property on a provider lease.

Cost	Professional HMO	Provider lease
Letting agent management	12–15%	0%
Maintenance	~10%	~5% allowance
Bills and utilities	~10%	0%
Tenant find, inventory, voids, refresh	Yes	0%
Total gone before the mortgage	~40% of income	~5%

Around 40% of the income on a professionally let HMO is gone before the mortgage is paid. On a lease it is nearer 5%. That gap is the whole argument, and it is why the headline yield on an HMO so often flatters it.

Where it works

Rent paid whether the property is let or standing empty
The lease is with the provider, not a tenant — no evictions, no rent chasing
Provider covers tenant management, internal maintenance, utilities and council tax
No letting agent taking 12–15% of the rent every month
It is a normal house in a normal street, so the exits stay open
Works from any time zone — there is nothing you need to be present for

The trade-offs

Lease rent sits below the open-market rate; that is what pays for the guarantee
You still own the roof, the windows and the boiler, and the bills that come with them
You are committed for the lease term, so it suits income buyers rather than flippers
The property must meet the provider's condition and compliance standard first
It depends on government and council funding, and policy can change

Social housing buy-to-let