Bills-included renting remains a minority model across Britain's private rented sector but is far more prevalent in certain regions than others, according to new analysis of Zoopla listing data.
Research by LegalforLandlords, which sourced data from Zoopla on 1 September 2026, found that 34.4% of rental listings in the North East are advertised as bills-included, compared with just 8.6% in Scotland. Nationally, bills-included properties account for 14.9% of all rental listings across Britain, meaning more than 85% of tenancies continue to leave tenants responsible for their own household bills.
London and the South East account for the largest shares of bills-included listings by volume, representing 23.9% and 13.2% respectively of all such properties identified in the analysis.
The data suggests there is no single national approach to bills-inclusive renting, with the model playing a substantially larger role in some regional and property markets than others.
Bills-inclusive arrangements have a longer-established presence in parts of the student rental market, where bundling utilities into a single monthly payment has traditionally formed part of the proposition to prospective tenants. The model also features in build-to-rent developments, where it is offered alongside other tenant incentives in competitive urban rental markets.
The findings come as the energy price cap is set to rise again. From October, the cap will increase by 4%, taking the annual figure for a typical household paying by Direct Debit from £1,663 to £1,723. That shift makes the economics of bills-inclusive arrangements particularly relevant for landlords currently offering or considering the model.
For tenants, bills-included renting can offer simplicity and greater certainty over monthly outgoings by combining household costs with rent. For landlords, however, taking on responsibility for bills also means absorbing exposure to energy price fluctuations and variations in tenant consumption, costs that would otherwise rest with the tenant.
LegalforLandlords said the data should not be read as a steer towards bills-inclusive renting, but as evidence of a model operating very differently across Britain's regions.
"Bills-included renting clearly isn't a single national trend," said Sim Sekhon, group chief executive of LegalforLandlords. "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."
