Travel costs (property)
for landlords

Landlords can deduct the cost of travel made wholly for the letting business: driving to a let property to inspect it, meet a tradesperson, check in a new tenant or deal with a problem. It can be claimed at actual vehicle costs or with the simplified mileage rate. On the UK property pages it sits in box 29, other allowable property expenses; in Making Tax Digital property updates it has its own travel costs category.

What goes in this category

• Mileage at the simplified rate, 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in 2026/27, for journeys wholly for the letting business.
• The business share of vehicle running costs, if you claim actual costs instead of mileage.
• Train, bus and taxi fares to let properties, letting agents and contractors.
• Parking and tolls on those journeys, and a hotel when a property trip needs a night away.

What does not

• Journeys that are partly personal, such as visiting a property on the way to see family.
• Travel to view properties you are thinking of buying, which is a capital cost of acquiring them.
• Fines and penalty charges on property journeys.
• Travel costs of a trading business, which go on the self-employment pages instead.

Items in this category

Wholly for the letting business

Landlords can only deduct expenses incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of renting out the property. A dedicated trip to a let flat to fix a leak or show it to a new tenant qualifies. A trip that combines a property visit with shopping or seeing friends does not, unless the property part can be clearly separated. Keep a note of the purpose of each journey with the mileage.

Mileage for landlords

The simplified mileage rate is available to landlords as well as sole traders, and GOV.UK's landlord guidance lists vehicle running costs, including mileage rate deductions, as allowable. For a landlord with a few properties nearby, the flat rate with a simple log is usually the easiest claim. The same rule applies as for traders: once you use the flat rate for a vehicle, you keep using it.

Buying or selling a property

Travel to view properties before buying, or to deal with a sale, is part of the capital cost of acquiring or disposing of the property rather than a running cost of the letting. It does not reduce rental profit, though some costs of buying and selling can count towards the cost for Capital Gains Tax.

Landlords who also trade

If you are a sole trader and a landlord, keep the two businesses' journeys apart. A trip to a customer is claimed on the self-employment pages; a trip to a tenant on the property pages. The 10,000-mile limit for the higher mileage rate applies across all your business miles in the tax year, so add both together when working out where the 25p rate starts.

Letting agents and travel

A landlord who uses a full management letting agent usually makes far fewer journeys, because the agent handles viewings, inspections and repairs. The agent's fees are claimed separately under professional fees. A landlord who self-manages makes more trips, and the travel is a real cost worth recording carefully, because it can add up to hundreds of pounds a year across several properties. Either way, only journeys you make yourself, for the letting, are travel costs.

Records HMRC expects

GOV.UK's landlord guidance lists mileage logs for journeys that are solely for the property business among the records to keep, alongside rent books, receipts, invoices and bank statements. A log with the date, the property, the reason and the miles is enough. Keep it for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year. Under Making Tax Digital, the travel total goes into each quarterly property update, so logging as you go saves reconstructing it later.

Worked example: a landlord with two flats

A landlord with two flats 20 miles away makes 24 round trips in the year for inspections, repairs and tenant changes: 960 miles. At 55p a mile that is £528 of allowable travel, plus £96 of parking. He cannot claim the 180 miles driven to view a third flat he later bought, because that travel was part of acquiring it.

Four questions before a cost goes here

1. Was it for the letting, and only for it? A cost must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the property business. A cost with a personal purpose that cannot be separated is not allowable at all.
2. Is part of it personal? Where a business part can be identified, such as business miles or business calls, claim that part on a reasonable basis and leave the rest out.
3. Is it a running cost or something you keep? Running costs belong in the expense categories. Buying or improving the property is capital and never goes here, though replacing domestic items has its own relief.
4. Is there a specific rule? Some costs are disallowed whatever their purpose, such as fines and client entertaining, and some have their own treatment, such as residential finance costs, which give a 20% tax reduction instead of a deduction.

Jointly owned property

If you own a let property with someone else, each owner reports their share of the rental income and expenses. Married couples and civil partners who live together are usually taxed on equal shares; if you own the property in unequal shares and are entitled to the income in the same shares, you can be taxed on that basis once you declare your beneficial interests to HMRC. Owners who are not married or in a civil partnership usually split profits by their share of the property, unless they agree a different allocation.

Property allowance or expenses

Instead of deducting expenses, a landlord can claim the £1,000 property allowance, which is simply taken off rental income. You cannot claim both for the same income, so the allowance only helps if your allowable expenses are less than £1,000. If your gross property income is £1,000 or less, the allowance covers it and you may not need to report it. Either way, keep records of what you spent, so you can tell which gives the lower profit.

This category in Making Tax Digital

Under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, a landlord's quarterly update carries the same property expense categories as the UK property pages of the return, so this category is one line of each update. Landlords with property income only, or with property and trading income together over £50,000, join from 6 April 2026, falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. If your property income is under £90,000 you can send a single consolidated expenses figure instead of the categories, but you still need the underlying records.

Cash basis or traditional accounting

Which accounting basis you use changes when a cost in this category counts, and sometimes whether it counts as an expense. On the cash basis, now the default, you deduct costs when you pay them and most things you buy to keep are ordinary expenses (cars being the exception). On traditional accounting, you deduct costs when you incur them and claim capital allowances for things you keep.

Residential finance costs are different

Since 6 April 2020, mortgage interest and other finance costs on residential lets are not deducted from rental income at all. Instead, you get a tax reduction of 20% of those costs, which is worth the same as a deduction to a basic-rate taxpayer and less to a higher-rate one. Finance costs for commercial and other non-residential lets are still deducted in full. That is why the property pages have a separate box (44) for residential finance costs.

How much an allowable cost saves

Landlords pay Income Tax on rental profit but no Class 4 National Insurance, so each pound of allowable expense saves 20p at the basic rate, 40p at the higher rate and 45p at the additional rate. Residential finance costs are the exception: they give a flat 20% tax reduction instead of a deduction.

What £1,000 of allowable expense saves a sole trader in 2026/27

• Basic rate (20% + 6%)£260
• Higher rate (40% + 2%)£420
• Additional rate (45% + 2%)£470
• Allowance taper band (60% + 2%)£620

Records to keep

Keep the invoice or receipt for every cost in this category, with a note of the business purpose wherever it is not obvious, and how you worked out the business share of anything also used privately. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 keep digital records and send quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital, falling to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028.

Common mistakes

• Claiming trips that were partly personal.
• Claiming travel to view properties before buying them.
• Claiming the same journey on both the self-employment and property pages.

Every other category

The other 7 categories on the UK property pages, in box order:

• Rent, rates, insurance and ground rents (property), SA105 box 24
• Property repairs and maintenance, SA105 box 25
• Non-residential property finance costs, SA105 box 26
• Legal, management and other professional fees (property), SA105 box 27
• Costs of services provided, including wages (property), SA105 box 28
• Other allowable property expenses, SA105 box 29
• Residential property finance costs, SA105 box 44

The A to Z of expenses lists every item and all 23 categories: the 15 self-employment categories and the 8 for UK property.