diff --git a/synapse/storage/_base.py b/synapse/storage/_base.py

index 086318a530..52891bb9eb 100644
--- a/synapse/storage/_base.py
+++ b/synapse/storage/_base.py
@@ -1279,7 +1279,8 @@ class SQLBaseStore(object):
             " AND ".join("%s = ?" % (k,) for k in keyvalues),
         )
 
-        return txn.execute(sql, list(keyvalues.values()))
+        txn.execute(sql, list(keyvalues.values()))
+        return txn.rowcount
 
     def _simple_delete_many(self, table, column, iterable, keyvalues, desc):
         return self.runInteraction(
@@ -1298,9 +1299,12 @@ class SQLBaseStore(object):
             column : column name to test for inclusion against `iterable`
             iterable : list
             keyvalues : dict of column names and values to select the rows with
+
+        Returns:
+            int: Number rows deleted
         """
         if not iterable:
-            return
+            return 0
 
         sql = "DELETE FROM %s" % table
 
@@ -1315,7 +1319,9 @@ class SQLBaseStore(object):
 
         if clauses:
             sql = "%s WHERE %s" % (sql, " AND ".join(clauses))
-        return txn.execute(sql, values)
+        txn.execute(sql, values)
+
+        return txn.rowcount
 
     def _get_cache_dict(
         self, db_conn, table, entity_column, stream_column, max_value, limit=100000