Company or personal ownership: which is better for an overseas landlord?

High loan-to-value borrowing where interest is a large proportion of rent, an intention to reinvest profit into further properties rather than draw it out, and multiple properties where the fixed cost of running a company is spread across more income, all favour incorporation.

Succession planning across generations can also favour a company, since shares can be gifted or restructured more flexibly than a directly owned property, though this brings its own inheritance tax and capital gains considerations.

Low or no mortgage, a need to draw most of the rental income to live on, a single property, or a plan to sell within a few years all reduce the benefit of a company, since the extra layer of tax on extraction and the fixed running costs outweigh the interest deductibility gain.

Personal ownership also keeps the exit simpler: a sale is subject to capital gains tax once, at rates that can be more favourable than the combined corporation tax and dividend tax cost of a company selling and then distributing the proceeds.

Our fixed monthly packages for a UK limited company start at £89 plus VAT and run to £169 and £289 plus VAT as bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and reporting are added. One-off filings are sold at fixed prices, and the Companies House fees we pay for you are charged at cost with no VAT added. Overseas owners are quoted on exactly the same published prices as UK-resident clients.

Rates, thresholds and deadlines here reflect the 2026/27 UK position and current Companies House and HMRC guidance. Check GOV.UK, or ask us, before relying on them for your own company.