• Skip to main content
Property Investments UK Logo.
Skip NavigationMenu
  • About
  • Articles
    • Calculators
    • Data
    • General Concepts
    • Investment Strategies
    • Latest Articles
    • Location Research
    • Property Experts
    • Regulations and Compliance
    • Selling Property
  • Training
  • Buy a Property
  • Sell a Property
  • Contact

How Many Bathrooms Should I Have in my House of Multiple Occupation?

When it comes to designing the space in your HMO you should be putting the needs of your tenants first. You don't want them falling out over access to the facilities. The ideal arrangement is 1 bathroom to every 3 tenants and health and safety regulations typically allow for a ration of 1 to 4.

Quick Links

  • How Many Bathrooms Should You Be Aiming For?
  • Putting Your Tenants First
  • Health and Safety
  • The HMO Officer
  • Putting It All Together
  • Join Our FREE Property Investment Course

Hello and welcome. Today we're going to be looking at how many bathrooms you will need if you're looking at purchasing an HMO (house in multiple occupation).

How Many Bathrooms Should You Be Aiming For?

There are two things to consider when it comes to how many bathrooms you need in an HMO. The first is thinking about what is going to be suitable for your tenants (and you need to put your tenants first). The second is what is required of you by health and safety legislation to the satisfaction of an HMO officer.

As a rule of thumb, you should be aiming for one bathroom per three tenants. You can have less but this is the sweet spot and ideally is what you should be going for.

Quick Links

Putting Your Tenants First

I've said it before but it bears repeating. Happy tenants will stay in your property for longer. In the long run, keeping your tenants happy will save you the expense of having to find new ones. It will help you to avoid those expensive void periods when the property isn't full.

So, you don't want your tenants to be arguing with each about hogging bathrooms or things like that. You want to make sure that your tenants have got enough space to enjoy living in your property. That simply, there are enough bathrooms to go round.

Putting your tenants first and keeping them happy should be your first priority when it comes to looking at how many bathrooms you need in your HMO.

Quick Links




Read More Articles about Investing in HMOs




Health and Safety

Health and safety regulation for an HMO typically requires one bathroom for every four tenants. If you have five tenants you will probably need to supply separate toilets from the main bathroom in the main bathroom suite.

What's important is that the tenants aren't running into difficulty through a lack of usable facilities.

Quick Links

The HMO Officer

So as I've said ultimately you should be going for the one-bathroom-per-three-tenants ratio. From a health and safety perspective, you can often stretch that to one bathroom to four.

Sometimes different councils can have different requirements so you will need to check the requirements.

If your local council has an HMO officer (as many do) I recommend speaking to that person. More often than not they are friendly and willing to come and look at the property. They will be able to give you advice on site both about what you need to do to comply with local regulations and also on what would make the most sense in the property itself.

We speak to many investors who are a bit cautious about speaking to HMO officers. They shouldn't be and neither should you.

Quick Links

Putting It All Together

When it comes to how many bathrooms you need in your house in multiple occupation the ideal ratio is one in three. This can be stretched to one in four.

You should also be asking yourself whether there is potential to include one or several en-suite bathrooms. We've covered that in another piece on whether sacrificing bedroom space to build en-suite bathrooms is a good idea.

I hope that helps. Remember that if you are unsure about how many bathrooms you need then talk to the HMO officer for the local council. Apart from that, put your tenants first. Remember that if they're happy with the facilities then they will stay for longer and your HMO will be more profitable.

Quick Links

Ready to Invest..?

We can give you access to a wide range of off-market property investment properties, with an average 8%+ annual yield (beating the UK's average of 3-5%, hands down). There's no commitment - all you have to do is sign up to discover what's on offer - Click below. 

Interesting, Show me More

...Or Thinking of Selling?

Investment property can be difficult to sell and the process will often leave the landlord out of pocket. We have sales-solutions for investors that estate agents simply can't include amongst the services that they can reasonably provide, with a guarantee.

Okay, Let's Have a Look

Filed Under: HMOs

Get to Know Us
  • Cookies
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
Learn Strategies
  • Buy to Let
  • HMOs
  • Holiday Lets
  • PBSA
  • Student HMOs
  • Serviced Accommodation
Calculators
  • England: SDLT Calculator
  • Loan to Value Calculator
  • Rental Yield Calculator
  • Scotland: LBTT Calculator
  • Wales: LTT Calculator
Services
  • Buy an Investment Property
  • Property Training
  • Sell Your Investment Property
London
  • East London
  • Greater London
  • North London
  • South London
  • West London
Midlands
  • Birmingham
  • Leicester
  • Nottingham
  • Stoke
  • Wolverhampton
North East
  • Durham
  • Middlesbrough
  • Newcastle
  • Sunderland
North West
  • Chester
  • Liverpool
  • Manchester
  • Salford
  • Stockport
South East
  • Bournemouth
  • Brighton
  • Cambridge
  • Oxford
  • Southampton
South West
  • Bath
  • Bristol
  • Cheltenham
  • Gloucester
  • Wiltshire
PROPERTY INVESTMENTS UK

Westminster House,
10 Westminster Road,
Macclesfield.
SK10 1BX

Company Number: 08852962
VAT Number: 293 4194 80

DISCLAIMER

Your capital is at risk when buying property. The value of property can go down as well as up. Historic performance and forecasts are not reliable indicators of future performance. We do not provide tax, financial, or investment advice. Any general information provided is intended to help you make your own informed decisions. We strongly recommend that you obtain independent professional advice (for example, from a qualified tax adviser, financial adviser, or solicitor) before making any investment or financial decision. Disclaimer for website services, content and products.

A Member of The Property Ombudsman

The Property Ombudsman logo

© 2014-2025 Property Investments UK. All Rights Reserved.

Sitemap