By the Beacon Living Group team · 5 July 2026 · 7 min read + calculator
Summary: Beacon Living Group pays Manchester landlords a fixed guaranteed rent with no management fees, no void losses and bills covered, while a typical high-street letting agent takes 10% - 15% plus VAT and leaves voids and maintenance with you. On most Manchester properties the hidden costs of an agent-managed let add up to 20% - 30% of the annual rent. Use the calculator below to see your own number.
Every Manchester landlord knows what their letting agent charges. Very few know what their letting agent costs. Those are different numbers, and the difference is usually thousands of pounds a year. This guide walks through where the money actually goes under a conventional agent-managed let, how guaranteed rent restructures the deal, and gives you a calculator to run your own figures rather than take anyone's word for it.
The headline management fee is the visible part: commonly 10% - 15% of the monthly rent, plus VAT, for full management in Manchester. On a property letting at £1,200 a month, a 12% fee plus VAT takes £2,074 out of a £14,400 annual rent before anything else happens.
Then come the costs that never appear on the brochure. Void periods sit entirely with you: every week the property stands empty between tenancies is a week of rent gone, and you still pay the mortgage, council tax and utilities during the gap. Maintenance is billed to you, often with a call-out mark-up. Tenant-find fees, renewal fees, inventory fees and deposit registration charges vary by agent but rarely amount to nothing. None of these are scandalous individually. Together they quietly turn a headline 12% into a real cost of a quarter or more of your rent.
The figures below start with illustrative Manchester defaults. Change them to match your property; everything recalculates instantly. This calculator shows the cost side of an agent-managed let. It does not include tax, insurance or mortgage costs, which apply under either model.
That is 0% of your annual rent gone, leaving you £0 before mortgage, insurance and tax. Figures are illustrative; adjust them to your own property.
Guaranteed rent removes the leaks rather than trimming them. Beacon Living Group takes your Manchester property on a corporate lease for three to five years and pays you the same fixed sum every month, whether the property is occupied or empty. There is no management fee to deduct because there is no management relationship: Beacon is your tenant, not your agent. Bills, council tax, WiFi and day-to-day maintenance are covered during the lease. Void weeks cost you nothing in rent because void risk sits with Beacon.
The honest trade-off is that the guaranteed figure is a sustainable one rather than a best-case one. Our standard process is to underwrite every offer against the real income the property can generate as serviced accommodation, which is what makes the guarantee possible for the whole term. Landlords chasing the absolute peak of the market in a perfect year with zero voids may beat it. Landlords comparing it with what actually lands in their account after fees, voids and maintenance usually find the comparison closer than they expected, and sometimes the wrong way round.
| Over a year | Agent-managed let | Beacon guaranteed rent Fixed |
|---|---|---|
| Management fee | ✕10% - 15% + VAT | ✓£0 |
| Void weeks | ✕Your loss | ✓Covered by Beacon |
| Maintenance and call-outs | ✕Billed to you | ✓Handled by Beacon |
| Bills between tenants | ✕Yours during voids | ✓Covered during lease |
| Income predictability | ✕Varies month to month | ✓Same sum, same date |
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Stay with an agent if you enjoy being involved, want to choose your own tenants, and are comfortable absorbing the variable costs in exchange for the chance of a higher gross figure. Move to guaranteed rent if you want a fixed income you can plan around, no calls about boilers, and a professional operator carrying the risk. Neither answer is wrong; they simply price certainty differently — and if Airbnb self-management is on your shortlist too, the guaranteed rent vs Airbnb comparison walks through that maths separately. The full comparison on our landlords page covers the contract mechanics in more detail.
Guaranteed rent from Beacon Living Group pays a fixed monthly sum with no fees, no void losses and bills covered, while an agent typically charges 10% - 15% plus VAT and passes voids and maintenance to you. An agent suits hands-on landlords chasing the top of the market. Guaranteed rent suits landlords who value certainty and zero involvement.
Full management commonly costs 10% - 15% of the rent plus VAT. Most landlords also pay tenant-find or renewal fees, maintenance call-out charges and the full cost of any void period. The percentage on the brochure is rarely the whole cost.
No. The rent figure agreed in the Beacon corporate lease is the amount paid every month for the full term. Utilities, council tax, WiFi and day-to-day maintenance are covered by Beacon during the lease.
If you want full day-to-day control, or believe you can consistently beat the guaranteed figure by self-managing without voids, a conventional route may suit you better. Guaranteed rent trades the theoretical peak for a certain, fixed income with no work.
Request a free, no-obligation rent offer. After a short assessment of your property's size, condition and location, Beacon Living Group confirms the exact fixed monthly figure it can guarantee, usually within 48 hours.
About Beacon Living Group. Beacon Living Group is a Manchester guaranteed rent and serviced accommodation operator. It leases properties from landlords across Manchester on 3- to 5-year corporate leases, pays a fixed monthly rent with no fees, and is built to manage every stay in-house. Beacon Living Group Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company no. 17076795.
Request your free, no-obligation rent offer from Beacon Living Group. An exact monthly figure, usually within 48 hours.
