More than a third of rental properties in the North East are being marketed with bills included, exposing a sharp regional divide in how landlords structure tenancies.
New analysis from LegalforLandlords found 34.4% of North East rental listings included bills. In Scotland, the figure was just 8.6%.
Across Britain, only 14.9% of rental properties were advertised with bills included. More than 85% therefore leave tenants to arrange and pay household bills separately.
The analysis used rental listings on Zoopla on 1 September 2026.
North East leads the way
The figures suggest bills-included renting remains concentrated in particular markets rather than becoming standard practice across the PRS.
More than one in three North East listings included bills, around four times the proportion recorded in Scotland.
London accounted for 23.9% of all bills-included properties identified in the research. The South East represented another 13.2%.
However, those figures reflect each region’s share of Britain’s bills-included stock rather than the proportion of local listings offering the arrangement.
The model already has a significant presence in parts of the student market. Some build-to-rent operators also bundle utilities with rent as part of their offer to tenants.
For renters, the arrangement can simplify monthly budgeting. For landlords, it transfers responsibility for changing utility costs and tenant usage to them.
Energy costs add to the calculation
The research comes ahead of another increase in the energy price cap.
From October, the cap for a typical household paying by Direct Debit will rise 4%, from £1,663 to £1,723 a year.
That adds another consideration for landlords deciding whether to absorb household bills within the rent.
LegalforLandlords stressed that its findings do not suggest landlords should adopt the model. Instead, the figures show how differently landlords use it across Britain.
Sim Sekhon, group CEO of LegalforLandlords, said: “Bills-included renting clearly isn’t a single national trend. In the North East, it accounts for more than a third of rental listings, while in Scotland it is less than one in ten. That’s a substantial difference in how landlords are approaching the rental proposition.
“There are also parts of the market where including bills has become a much more established part of the offer. Student accommodation has long used the simplicity of bills-inclusive renting as an attraction, while build-to-rent operators can use it alongside other perks to make their developments stand out to prospective tenants.
“For tenants, having bills included can make budgeting simpler and give greater certainty over monthly outgoings. For landlords, it is a very different proposition because they take on responsibility for costs that can fluctuate and consumption they cannot fully control.
“With the energy price cap rising again in October, the economics of that decision are becoming even more relevant. But there is no one-size-fits-all answer. What works for a student property or a build-to-rent development may look very different for a traditional private landlord.”
