The Loft Lease Kit

What an apartment really costs a month, to move into and over the first year, against the income you actually take home: the 30% rule of thumb read on take-home pay, a landlord's income test kept apart from your budget, the all-in month, the move-in lump, the rate per measured foot, the worst month of bills and the lamps you will buy

LoftFlat's rent affordability calculator is its most used tool, and it answers one question: what is 30% of your gross income. That is a rule of thumb set on pay before tax, held against the rent in the listing. Our other calculators each see one piece: cost per square foot ranks headline rents, ceiling volume says a tall loft holds far more air, and the lighting calculator assumes every lumen reaches the floor. None of them puts the pieces together before you sign. The Loft Lease Kit does, in seven steps. It reads the ceiling on take-home pay (on $84,000 a year and $5,300 a month take-home, 30% of gross is $2,100, or 39.6% of what arrives), keeps a landlord's 40x or 3x income test apart from your budget, and holds the ceiling against the all-in month. In its worked pair the loft's listing is $100 a month cheaper; all in, with fees, the worst month of the unit's own bills and the lamps an after-dark viewing says to buy, its first year costs $2,065 more. Every figure is computed from our own calculators, and the worked apartments are examples. The 30% and 28% figures are labelled rules of thumb and landlord tests vary, so the kit has you get each landlord's terms in writing. It quotes no tenant law and is not legal advice; wiring, gas, structural changes and fire egress are outside it. Included: 24 printable pages with seven steps, a ceiling sheet, an apartment sheet, a decision sheet, a viewing card, a ceiling table and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the pack, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Two Incomes Rule: the 30% rule of thumb set on gross pay and read as a share of take-home pay
• The Approval Rule: what common landlord income tests approve, floored to the cent, and why approval is not a budget
• The All-In Rule: rent, mandatory fees, the worst month of utilities, insurance, internet and parking against your ceiling
• The Move-In Rule: the deposit, first month, fees and lamps, the months to save them, and the first year all in
• The Measured Rate Rule: the all-in month per measured square foot, and how a listing's rate can flip
• The Worst Month Rule: ceiling volume, twelve months of the unit's own bills, and budgeting the worst month
• The After-Dark Rule: counting working fixed fittings zone by zone and the plug-in lamps to buy
• Four working pages: a ceiling sheet, an apartment sheet, a decision sheet and a cut-out viewing card
• A ceiling table (28%, 30% and common income tests by gross income) and a quickstart
• A personalised sheet worked from the income, apartments, rooms and lamps you enter in our calculators

The pack picks up where the free rent affordability calculator leaves off. The calculator gives 30% and 28% of gross income, rules of thumb; the pack reads that ceiling against your take-home pay, keeps a landlord’s income test apart from your budget, holds the ceiling against the all-in month (fees, the worst month of utilities, insurance, internet), counts the move-in lump and the first year, and ranks apartments on the all-in cost per measured square foot with the cost per square foot calculator. It names no building or landlord and is not legal advice; wiring, gas and structural work are out of its scope.