It might not seem like it to many landlords, but property-based businesses in general have been among the most resilient during the Coronavirus Crisis.

A study by the Office of National Statistics, Firms and industries where turnover was resilient during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, found that ‘education’ and ‘real estate’ were the two industrial classifications most likely to have held up their income during the crisis. In both cases 50 per cent of businesses within the respective Standard Industrial Codes were labelled as ‘resilient’.

Real estate has the SIC 6531, which includes renting, buying, selling, managing, and appraising real estate.

‘Construction’, ‘manufacturing’ and ‘information and communication’ were among the least resilient types of businesses, with fewer than 20 per cent labelled as such.

Industries classified as resilient saw an increase in turnover in March 2020 and a smaller fall in April compared to other industries, said ONS.

• A total of £92.3bn in income tax was paid on ‘property, interest, dividend and other income’ in the tax year ending 2019, according to the latest Personal income statistics from HM Revenue and Customs.

  Fewer than 20 per cent of taxpayers with taxable income of under £50,000 had property  income – compared to 33 per cent for those with incomes above £1m. However, for those lower taxpayers that did have property income, it represented a much higher proportion of their income – 87 per cent for those with taxable income of between £11,850 and £13,000.